NEW YORK: A Pakistan-born neuroscientist has become a rallying cry for militant groups demanding her release from a US prison. But in a little-noticed move she is trying to abandon her legal fight for freedom, saying the US court system is unjust.
Militants in Syria, Algeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan have made Aafia Siddiqui’s release a condition for freeing certain foreign hostages. Islamic State (IS), for example, proposed swapping American journalist James Foley for her, but he was executed after their demands, which also included an end to US airstrikes in Iraq, were not met.
A 42-year-old mother of three with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, Siddiqui is serving an 86-year sentence in a prison medical center in Texas. A jury in 2010 convicted her of attempting to shoot and kill a group of FBI agents, US soldiers and interpreters who were about to interrogate her for alleged links to Al-Qaeda.
Aafia Siddiqui seeks to abandon her legal fight for freedom
Aafia Siddiqui seeks to abandon her legal fight for freedom
