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Monthly Archives: January 2010
Hearing of Dr. Aafia case adjourned till Monday
WASHINGTON: The hearing of the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, detained and being tried in US over alleged charges of attempt to murder US troops in Afghanistan, has been adjourned until Monday, Geo news reported.
Two more witnesses from prosecution were questioned on Friday during hearing of her case here in New York case.
One witness claimed she got training of triggering pistol in Boston some 19 years ago but he was sorry over production of record or evidence as proof of his claim when asked by defense counsel.
He said he regained knowledge of Dr. Aafia when FBI personnel came and showed him her picture some two weeks ago.
Aafia Siddiqui Trial: Jury Can Start Deliberation On Monday
Jury in Dr. Aafia Siddiqui trial is likely to begin deliberations Monday afternoon after prosecution and defense attorneys make closing statements.
In a taped video deposition presented by defense on Friday, Bashir, an Afghan police officer testified that he saw an American officer walk behind the curtain just before he heard gun shots, and that he never saw Dr. Siddiqui pick up a gun. Bashir was the last defense witness.
Earlier in the day Judge Richard Berman allowed prosecution to produce additional witnesses to rebut claims made by the defense witnesses and experts.
No concrete proofs presented against Aafia
The hearing in the prevailing week of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui case has come to end here in a court during which, the prosecutor could only produce witnesses with contradictions in their testimonies against Aafia.
Two more witnesses were questioned on weekend of hearing in the case including an FBI investigation officer and the other was eyewitness in the case.
She, on many occasions during the proceedings of Friday’s hearing, kept voicing concerns over the eligibility and sincerity of counsels defending her in the case. Also, she asked the judge for allowing her meeting with US president Obama as according to her, she could be helpful in maintenance of peace in Afghanistan.
FBI expert doubtful whether rifle allegedly used by Aafia was fired
NEW YORK: An FBI firearms expert has expressed doubts whether the M-4 rifle, which was allegedly grabbed by Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui to attack U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan, was ever fired at the crime scene.Carlo Rosati, the expert who testified in a federal court Friday, said he had thoroughly examined the weapon, the curtain from a room of Ghazni police station where the shooting incident took place and the debris of its wall where two bullets reportedly hit, but found no evidence that gunshots leave behind.
Ms. Siddiqui is charged with snatching a U.S. warrant officer’s rifle in mid-2008 while she was detained for questioning in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province and firing it at FBI agents and military personnel.
None of them were hit. Pointedly asked by Charles Swift, the lead defence lawyer, if he was certain the M-4 rifle was ever fired at the crime scene, he said he could not say that with absolute certainty. An FBI forensic expert has already confirmed he found no fingerprints of Ms. Siddiqui on the M-4 rifle when the weapon was produced in the court Thursday.
Witnesses statements vary in Dr Aafia’s trial
New York—An FBI expert told a federal court on Wednesday that he found no fingerprints on the rifle that Aafia Siddiqui allegedly grabbed to fire at US interrogators in Afghanistan, but asserted that firearms in many cases do not retain them.
T. J. Fife, the FBI fingerprint expert who was put on the stand by the prosecution on the second day of Ms. Siddiqui’s trial, said he used all techniques, including the top-of-the-line laser technology to search for evidence, but found nothing on the M-4 rifle, which was produced in the court. “There were no fingerprints on the rifle, but it is difficult to obtain them from firearms,” he added. Fife was the last of the five prosecution witnesses who testified on Wednesday. He will be cross-examined by defence lawyers on Thursday.
Throughout Wednesday’s proceedings, the lawyers for the prosecution and defence worked to focus the jurors’ attention on their stands concerning the July 18, 2008, incident in Ghazni, Afghanistan. In his opening statement on Tuesday,
Aafia’s lawyer says tougher court security violate her right to open trial
NEW YORK: A lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui on Thursday protested against heavier-than-usual security at the U.S. District Court where the Pakistani neuroscientist is being tried for attempted murder, saying the measures violated his client’s right to a free, fair and open trial. Just before the court adjourned on the third day of trial, Charles Swift, her lead lawyer, said that the court’s security men were asking people coming in to witness the proceedings to produce their personal identification even after passing through two check points.
A metal detector was put in place outside the 21st-floor courtroom, in addition to the ones already on the ground floor. Even journalists with press passes were asked to provide additional identification, like a drivers license or social security number. Swift, one of three top lawyers retained by the Pakistan government to defend Ms. Siddiqui, said that the jurors could also feel threatened by the tougher security measures enforced in the court. But Judge Berman said that he had no knowledge of the security steps being taken and would discuss with the relevant authorities on Friday.
Aafia’s lawyers angry over extra security checks at court
A lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist, has denounced extra security measures at a U.S. court requiring visitors at her trial to show identification and sign in even after passing through two check points.
The extra security check comes on top of a metal detector placed outside the doorway of the Manhattan courtroom on the 21st floor of the building where Aafia Siddiqui is on trial for attempted murder. That detector is in addition to the ones already on the ground floor.
“The suggestion is that the public gallery may be a threat,” said Charles Swift, one of the three leading lawyers retained by the Pakistan government to defend Ms. Siddiqui.
Aafia Siddiqui Trial Day Three
by Petra Bartosiewicz
This week the long awaited trial of Aafia Siddiqui began in a federal courtroom in Manhattan. Her case has been one of the most baffling in the annals of post-9/11 terrorism prosecutions. Siddiqui, as regular readers of this website know, is a 37-year-old, MIT-educated neuroscientist, who lived in the U.S. for ten years before mysteriously vanishing from Karachi, her hometown, in 2003, along with her three children, two of whom are American born. For five years her whereabouts remained unknown, while rumors swirled that she was an Al Qaeda operative, and that she had married Ammar al Baluchi, the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and one of the five accused 9/11 plotters expected to face trial in the U.S. In July 2008 she was picked up in Ghazni, Afghanistan on suspicion of being a suicide bomber. The following day, as a team of U.S. soldiers and FBI agents arrived to question her at the police station where she was being held, she allegedly managed to get hold of an M-4 automatic rifle belonging to one of the soldiers, and, according to prosecutors, she opened fire. She hit no one but was herself hit in the abdomen by return fire.
Aafia’s trial to resume on Monday
NEW YORK: The trial of Aafia Siddiqi, the Pakistani neuroscientist, on charge of attempted murder adjourned till next week after recording the testimony on Friday of a firearm expert working for the FBI.
Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan said the trial will resume on Monday morning. Before the adjournment, the lead lawyer for Ms. Siddiqui, Charles Swift, told the judge that the extra security measures, about which he had protested on Thursday, were still in place on Friday.
Strategy for Dr Aafia’s release: Senators’ behaviour mars standing committee meeting
* Talha Mehmood says senators’ attitude shows their lack of interest in Aafia’s release
* Dr Aafia’s sister wants family left alone
By Tahir Niaz
ISLAMABAD: The behaviour of senators Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party and Tahir Hussain Mashaddi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement marred the proceedings of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, which was summoned to evolve a joint strategy for the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
The two senators objected to the “way committee Chairman Talha Mehmood was conducting the proceedings”, besides criticising the presence of representatives from all political parties to discuss the possible efforts for the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. On Haji Adeel’s remarks regarding “other participants of the meeting”, MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram – a special invitee to the meeting – walked out in protest. Other representatives of political parties also criticised the remarks by Adeel.
