Aafia Siddiqui Found Malingering To Avoid Prosecution
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DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
Mon, 06 Jul, 2009 | Rajab 13, 1430
Dr Aafia Siddiqui may be forced to appear in court
NEW YORK: A US-trained Pakistani scientist accused of helping al-Qaida
and shooting at FBI agents may be forced to appear in court on Monday
against her will.
Dr Aafia Siddiqui may have to appear by video or in person in federal
court in Manhattan at a hearing to decide if she’s competent to stand
trial, defence attorney Dawn Cardi said.
Siddiqui has reported seeing her children in her jail cell and has
stated she died after being strip-searched.
Prosecutors accuse Siddiqui of having ties to al-Qaida and say she
grabbed a US Army officer’s M-4 rifle in Afghanistan, pointed it at an
Army captain and cried ‘Allahu akbar,’ Arabic for ‘God is great.’ They
say she fired at US soldiers and FBI agents before she was shot and
wounded by an Army officer.
A defence attorney has disputed that account, saying the US government
has the facts wrong.
Siddiqui, a specialist in neuroscience who trained at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University,
appeared in court twice after she was brought to the US last August
but has refused to attend proceedings since then. She’s charged with
attempted murder and assault.
US District Judge Richard Berman entered a not guilty plea for her.
The judge signed an order days ago permitting authorities to take her
to court against her will, Cardi said.
‘Her choice is not to come,’ Cardi said. ‘I don’t want her traumatised
any more than she has to be, being strip-searched and all.’
Mental health professionals who have evaluated Siddiqui over the last
year will be questioned by lawyers on both sides during the competency
hearing. A trial is set for October 19.
The government is expected to highlight the conclusions by three
experts that Siddiqui, 37, is exaggerating psychological symptoms,
perhaps to avoid trial.
Cardi likely will point to findings by a physician and another expert,
psychologist L. Thomas Kucharski, who has said Siddiqui suffers from
delusional disorder and depression and is unfit for trial.
Psychologists for both sides have said Siddiqui has reported seeing
some of her children in her cell and seemed particularly disturbed by
strip searches required before any court appearance.
The psychologists wrote in court documents put in the public court
record late last week that Siddiqui repeatedly stated she was dead
after one strip search and that she said she was convinced video of
the search was distributed on the Internet.
The prosecution’s Gregory B. Saathoff, an associate professor in
psychiatric medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine,
said Siddiqui’s verbal reports of hallucinations of seeing her
children in her cell were quite dramatic. But he said her unemotional
references to her own death were inconsistent and not accompanied by
physical symptoms of depression one might expect, such as changes in
appetite, weight, sleep and hygiene.
Saathoff wrote that Siddiqui had expressed to Pakistani officials who
met with her in jail a desire to return directly to Pakistan but she
had a different answer when he asked her about the statements. He said
she told him: ‘Why do you bring up Pakistan? This world is all the
same. There are worse places than this place. I just want to be put in
some prison and be forgotten. It’s better for everybody.’
Cardi said authorities don’t know the whereabouts of two of Siddiqui’s
three children. The third child is living with her sister in Pakistan.
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DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
Sunday, 05 Jul, 2009 | Rajab 12, 1430
NEW YORK: Reports prepared by Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s psychologists claim
that she was living freely in Pakistan and Afghanistan for portions of
the five years before her arrest last year, disputing claims that the
scientist had spent those years in the custody of foreign authorities.
Newly public court documents contain reports by psychologists who
treated Aafia Siddiqui after she was arrested in Afghanistan in July
2008 and was charged with taking a gun and shooting at US soldiers and
FBI agents. She was shot in the abdomen in the encounter.
The testimony of the mental health experts will be at issue beginning
on Monday at a hearing in US District Court in Manhattan to determine
whether the 37-year-old Pakistani is competent to stand trial.
Defence lawyers for Siddiqui are challenging her competency for trial,
citing the conclusions of an expert who found she is suffering from
delusional disorder and depression.
Prosecutors cite reports by psychologists who say Siddiqui’s behavior
reflects malingering, the intentional production of grossly
exaggerated psychological symptoms aimed at getting a result, such as
avoiding trial.
Leslie Powers, a forensic psychologist, wrote in a document dated May
4 and put in the court’s public file late Thursday that new
information helps show Siddiqui was living freely in Pakistan and
Afghanistan from 2003 to 2008.
Siddiqui’s supporters and former lawyers maintain she had likely been
taken into custody by foreign military intelligence authorities during
those years and was subjected to torture, sexual abuse and beatings.
Siddiqui earned an undergraduate degree in biology from MIT in 1995
and a doctorate in neuroscience from Brandeis University in 2001. She
left the United States in June 2002 with her three children.
Powers wrote that Siddiqui has told the FBI that she worked at the
Karachi Institute of Technology in 2005, that she tried to look for
her husband in Afghanistan in the winter of 2007 and that she stayed
for a time in Quetta, Pakistan.
The psychologist also wrote that Siddiqui’s ex-husband, Mohammad Amjad
Khan, reported seeing either her or their children on several
occasions in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
‘While her accounts of her time are incomplete, her statements and
other facts gathered seem to corroborate that she was not held captive
from 2003 until 2008,’ Powers said.
Powers said Siddiqui was interviewed at length by the FBI for several
days after her arrest on July 18, 2008.
She said FBI agents who accompanied Siddiqui on her 20-hour flight to
the United States last Aug. 4 reported that she showed no signs of
psychosis or psychological distress and that she was fully oriented
and talkative throughout the trip.
Powers and two other experts have concluded Siddiqui is competent for
trial.
In a defence exhibit, psychologist L. Thomas Kucharski, chairman of
the Department of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice,
concluded that Siddiqui suffers from delusional disorder and is
depressed.
He said her delusions ‘include the belief that the court is part of a
conspiracy to have her killed, tortured and/or have her witness the
torture of her children.’
He added: ‘She believes that the outcome of her trial is
predetermined; that she will get the death penalty and has stated to
this evaluator that there is no need to go to trial or work with her
attorneys in her defence because of this predetermination. She
required that I inform the court to just impose the death penalty or
whatever penalty it chooses and to not bother her with the formality
of proceedings.’
Gregory B. Saathoff, an associate professor in psychiatric medicine at
the University Of Virginia School Of Medicine, said delusions Siddiqui
had had involving flying infants, dark angels, a dog in her cell and
children visiting her in her room were largely resolved after she
believed she was found incompetent to stand trial.
Sally C. Johnson, a professor in the psychiatry department at the
University of North Carolina, wrote in a March 16 report that
Siddiqui’s medical problems have been treated and stabilized.
Johnson said Siddiqui has given vague accounts of her whereabouts from
2003 to 2008, saying she was given shelter by different people.
Johnson said Siddiqui has also given varying accounts of where her
children were during those years but told one agent that sometimes one
has to take up a cause that is more important than one’s children.
Johnson left a warning at the end of her report, saying that in spite
of Siddiqui’s frail and timid appearance – she has weighed as little
as 90 pounds – ‘her potential for aggression towards herself or others
might be underestimated.’
She cited reports that Siddiqui had taken actions to try to escape
from custody before she was transferred to the United States. Johnson
recommended that adequate care be taken to protect Siddiqui.
‘Given her expressed degree of devotion to her belief system,’ she
wrote, ‘it is possible that she could perceive herself as a martyr for
a cause.’
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DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
Sun, 28 June, 2009 | Rajab 5, 1430
Aafia Siddiqui’s mental health discussed ‘in-camera’ By Masood Haider
NEW YORK: The mental status of Dr Aafia Siddiqui , the Pakistani
national indicted in the US on terrorism charges last August, was
discussed in detail at an ‘in-camera’ proceeding in the New York Court
Friday.
The hearing was scheduled to ascertain Ms Siddiqui’s mental health to
stand trial by US Federal Court Judge Richard Berman.
The court appointed doctor, Mr Powell gave his opinion on Ms
Siddiqui’s mental status in the presence of Judge Berman and Ms
Siddiqui.
Ms Siddiqui returned to New York from Fort Worth (Texas) where she was
sent for mental evaluation.
According to sources, Ms Siddiqui’s court appointed lawyer, Dawn
Cardi, was also present besides a representative of Pakistan Embassy.
During the 30 minute discourse, Judge Berman was informed that Ms
Siddiqui was in good physical state, the sources said. However, her
lawyer Dawn Cardi disputed government’s claim.
Last November defense lawyers claimed that Ms Siddiqui who was
undergoing court ordered Psychiatric tests was unfit to stand trial.
But on March 26 this year, US prosecutors submitted documents to the
trial court stating that two independent, government psychiatrists had
determined that Ms Siddiqui was ‘malingering’ or faking her symptoms
of mental illness.
The judge, Richard M. Berman, has set a tentative trial date for July
6.
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DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
Thursday, 25 June, 2009 | Rajab 2, 1430
Aafia Siddiqui to appear in New York court Friday
By Masood Haider
NEW YORK: Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national indicted in the US on
terrorism charges, last August is unable to account for five years of
her life and this may have an adverse affect on Islamabad’s efforts to
get her released, according to experts here.
Ms Siddiqui, a neuroscientist and an alumna of MIT and Barandeis
universities, is scheduled to appear before a US court in New York on
Friday.
Last November defense lawyers claimed that Siddiqui who was undergoing
court ordered Psychiatric tests was unfit to stand trial.
The psychiatric examination was conducted at a medical centre in Fort
Worth Texas.
But on March 26 this year, US prosecutors submitted documents to the
trial court stating that two independent government psychiatrists had
determined that Siddiqui was ‘malingering’ or faking her symptoms of
mental illness. The judge, Richard M. Berman, scheduled a hearing for
June one to determine Siddiqui’s competency and set a tentative trial
date for July 6.
According to another report the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has
been approached by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency for access
to Dr Aafia Siddiqui to investigate her alleged links with any terror
network.
FIA Director General Tariq Khosa called for a probe against Siddiqui’s
ex-husband, Mohammad Amjad Khan ‘to get vital information,’ a report
in this newspaper said.
A source claimed that FIA staff had also sought an interview with one
of the Pakistani senators, who recently met Dr Siddiqui in the United
States.
An Islamic charity organization reported recently it has collected
some $70,000 for the defense fund of Ms. Siddiqu
Pakistan’s US Ambassador Husain Haqqani met with Ms Siddiqui two weeks
ago, according to a report.
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