Pakistani neuroscientist,Aafia Siddiqui,has been found guilty of attempted murder by grabbing a soldier's gun and opening fire on American soldiers and FBI agents when they came to question her in a holding room in the city of Ghazni in Afghanistan. The decision was reached by the jury of a federal court in Manhattan who deliberated for almost two days. The 37-year-old,Siddiqui,faces up to 60 years in prison for attempted murder and armed assault. "This is a verdict coming from Israel and not from America," she said,after the verdict was announced. "That's where the anger belongs. I can testify to this and I have proof." Last year,Siddiqui was picked up by Afghan forces after she was found wandering around the governor's house in Ghazni with a small boy. In her purse the Afghan and US forces say were handwritten paper with written words like "radiation material","dirty bomber," and names of New York City landmarks including Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building. There was allegedly a thumb drive with more notes in various languages including Urdu. For the past two weeks,the prosecution presented several witnesses that testified that Siddiqui had pulled the trigger but the defense pointed out several times that the prosecution had no physical evidence that the gun had also been fired. The US agents escaped unharmed but Siddiqui took a bullet to the stomach from which she later recovered. One of the principle witnesses,Captain Jack Snyder,previously told the court that the gun was pointed straight at his head and being able to see in the barrel of the gun. "I used the arms of my chair to spring out of my seat and get out of the line of the fire," he said. During the initial stages of the trial,the defendant refused to cooperate with the court,boycotting her own defense team and interrupting the proceedings several times following which she was removed from the court. However,Siddiqui testified in her defense last week and told the court the charges against her were a big lie and that she was shot trying to escape from the room. The prosecution had asserted that Siddiqui had fiercely struggled against the officers when they tried to pin her down. The defense had rebutted this several times by pointing out that it was ludicrous to suggest that the petite and frail defendant could not have fought off men twice her size. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained scientist is also believed to have Al Qaeda sympathies but this case had no terror related charges. Siddiqui left for Pakistan from US in 2002. The following year she disappeared from Pakistan and suddenly resurfaced in 2008 in front of the governor's house. During the trial,she hinted several times that she had been detained by US authorities during this time. Her children are still missing.
