Lawyer: Siddiqui May Be Mentally Unfit to Stand Trial
Pakistani Woman Charged With Attempted Murder of U.S. Personnel in Afghanistan

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 4, 2008; 5:13 PM



NEW YORK -- The lawyer for an American-trained neuroscientist charged with trying to kill U.S. personnel in July said in court today that she believes her client was imprisoned and tortured for several years before the incident and now might be "mentally incompetent."

Attorney Elizabeth Fink told a federal judge in New York that Aafia Siddiqui, who disappeared in Pakistan with her three children in March 2003, needs a full psychological evaluation to determine whether she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and competent to help in her own defense. She also urged that Siddiqui be examined by experts in the effects of torture.

According to the government, Siddiqui surfaced July 17 with her eldest son, now 11, in an Afghan province after a five-year absence. The two were arrested by Afghan police, who said they received an anonymous tip that Siddiqui and her son were planning suicide bombings. The next day, when a team of U.S. Army and FBI officials came to interview her, Siddiqui wrested an M-4 rifle from one of them and shot at the team, prosecutors said. Siddiqui was wounded when they returned fire.

Now in U.S. custody in New York, Siddiqui faces a possible life sentence if convicted of attempted murder and firearms charges.

Siddiqui, 36, did not appear in court for today's arraignment. Her lawyer said that due to significant abdominal wounds, Siddiqui has refused to submit to a painful strip search that is required before she can leave the prison. Federal prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman that federal prison staff must impose appropriate security measures on Siddiqui.

Fink told Berman that Siddiqui shows signs of having been imprisoned and treated inhumanely for a long period of time.

"She's on the borderline," Fink said. "I believe this woman was kidnapped with her children and she's been held in custody -- either the Pakistan intelligence officials or some arm of our government. . . . I believe she was released in July and set up for this confrontation."

According to documents described in court by Fink, Siddiqui told prison staff she feared her son was being starved and tortured, and asked them to take food off her tray in the New York prison and send it to her son in Afghanistan. Siddiqui's son is a U.S. citizen but remains in the custody of Afghan authorities. An Afghan Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday that he will be released shortly.

Siddiqui disappeared outside her parents' home in Karachi in late March 2003, weeks after the FBI sent out a global alert that it was searching for her. The U.S. government has alleged that Siddiqui had ties to major al-Qaeda figures and later asserted she was a facilitator for the terrorist organization who helped provide travel documents for terrorists. She is not charged with any terrorist acts.

But friends and relatives say those claims do not fit with what they know of Siddiqui, who lived in the United States for 12 years, part of the time with young children, and did graduate work in behavioral sciences at M.I.T. and Brandeis.

Her disappearance -- and activists' claims that she was detained by Pakistani authorities and interrogated for a time by the CIA -- have sparked protests in Pakistan. The Justice Department and CIA have said they knew nothing about Siddiqui's whereabouts before her arrest in Afghanistan in July.

Staff writer Candace Rondeaux contributed to this report from Islamabad.

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