US convicts Pakistani woman scientist on terror charges

BBC:

Aafia Siddiqui, the female Pakistani scientist convicted of attempting to kill US military personnel, has been sentenced to 86 years in prison.

Siddiqui was being interrogated by US officials in Afghanistan when she grabbed a rifle and opened fire, shouting "death to Americans".

Prosecutors in New York called her an al-Qaeda sympathiser and sought life imprisonment.

Protests broke out across Pakistan after the sentence was announced.

"As a unanimous jury found beyond a reasonable doubt, Aafia Siddiqui attempted to murder Americans serving in Afghanistan, as well as their Afghan colleagues," said US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

"She now faces the stiff consequences of her violent actions."

Prosecutors used notes she was carrying at the time of her arrest, which included references to constructing dirty bombs and a list of New York City landmarks, as evidence that she was a potentially dangerous terrorist.

She was also carrying sodium cyanide, a toxic substance.

Siddiqui's lawyers argued she was mentally ill.

Siddiqui is a neuroscientist who had studied at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US before marrying a relative of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and returning to Pakistan.

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I don't think she was mentally ill, unless you consider all terrorist mentally ill. I would have preferred to see her tried at Gitmo by a military commission rather than in a lawfare court in New York. As for the protest in Pakistan, those doing it should be looked at for ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban.