Pak scientist sentenced to 86 yrs in US

New York — A US-trained Pakistani scientist convicted of trying to kill US agents and military officers in Afghanistan was sentenced on Thursday to 86 years in prison after she called on Muslims to resist using violence and said she loves American soldiers.


The US-trained scientist from Pakistan who was convicted of trying to murder US agents and military officers in Afghanistan should be sent to prison for 12 years rather than life because she is mentally ill, her lawyers said.

Aafia Siddiqui, 38, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by Judge Richard M Berman, who said "significant incarceration is appropriate." "Don't get angry," Siddiqui said in court to her supporters after the sentence was announced. "Forgive Judge Berman."



Berman responded, saying: "I wish more defendants would feel the way that you do." The sentencing capped a strange legal odyssey that began two summers ago, when Siddiqui turned up in Afghanistan carrying evidence that -- depending on the argument -- proved she was either a terrorist or a lunatic.


In February, she was convicted of grabbing a rifle and trying to shoot U.S. authorities in Afghanistan while yelling, "Death to Americans!" The conviction touched off protests in Pakistan that resumed Thursday as hundreds chanted "Free Aafia!" at a rally in Karachi. Others demonstrated outside the Manhattan courthouse.



Pakistani protesters rally to condemn the arrest of alleged Al-Qaeda suspect Aafia Siddiqui in Karachi, Pakistan. Siddiqui's strange legal odyssey began two summers ago in Afghanistan, where she turned up carrying evidence that - depending on the argument- proved she was either a terrorist or a lunatic.

During a rambling statement to the court Thursday, Siddiqui carried only a message of peace. "I do not want any bloodshed. I do not want any misunderstanding. I really want to make peace and end the wars," she said.

Siddiqui said she was particularly upset by overseas reports that she was being tortured in a US prison. She said she was actually being treated well.




"I am not sad. I am not distressed. ... They are not torturing me," she said. "This is a myth and lie and it's being spread among the Muslims." Prosecutors said Siddiqui is a cold-blooded radical who deserves life in prison.

In court papers, they cited threatening notes Siddiqui was carrying at the time of her detention. They directly quoted one as referencing "a `mass casualty attack' ... NY CITY monuments: Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge," and another musing how a dirty bomb would spread more fear than death. They claimed the notes, along with the fact that she was carrying sodium cyanide, showed she wasn't an accidental menace.



"Her conduct was not senseless or thoughtless," prosecutors wrote. "It was deliberate and premeditated. Siddiqui should be punished accordingly."

The defense had asked the judge for a sentence closer to 12 years behind bars. Her lawyers argued in court papers that their client's outburst inside a cramped Afghan outpost was a spontaneous "freak out," born of mental illness not militancy.

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Pakistan to fight for terrorist convict's release

Meanwhile, Pakistan's prime minister called a female scientist convicted of trying to kill U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan "the daughter of the nation" on Friday and vowed to campaign for her release from an American jail.

Yousuf Raza Gilani's comments appeared to be an attempt to manage public anger over the 86-year sentence handed down to Aafia Siddiqui. The plight of the American-trained Pakistani scientist and mother has struck a chord among Islamist groups and ordinary Pakistanis, many of whom are convinced of her innocence.


She was sentenced on Thursday in a New York court. The punishment prompted demonstrations in at least two cities, with much of the anger directed at the already unpopular Pakistani government for failing to somehow intervene in her case. Pakistani authorities on Friday were braced for more protests.

Gilani said he had recently lobbied US officials for Siddiqui's release to "improve the US image in Pakistan." "We all are united, and we want the daughter of the nation to come back to Pakistan," he told parliament, which unanimously adopted a resolution demanding Aafia's "repatriation."


"I fought for her, my lawyer fought for her and now I will take up this matter on a political level," he said. Siddiqui, 38, was caught in Afghanistan in 2008. She was found guilty of seizing a weapon from one of her captors and trying to shoot US authorities who were interrogating her there.

Many Pakistanis believe claims by her supporters that the US abducted Siddiqui long before that and kept her in a secret prison for years as it pursued its fight against global terrorism. US officials deny those claims, though they had listed Siddiqui as a suspect wanted for alleged links to al-Qaeda before her arrest.