Pakistan seeks repatriation of jailed scientist

This September 23, 2010 courtroom drawing shows Pakistani scientist Dr.Aafia Siddiqui (C) with Judge Richard Berman(L), US Assistant Attorney Christopher LaVigne (2ndL) and Attorney Linda Moreno (R) in New York. A US federal court Thursday sentenced Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison for attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan."It is my judgement that Dr Siddiqui is sentenced to a period of incarceration of 86 years," said judge Richard Berman. Aafia Siddiqui, 38, denounced the trial and said an appeal would be "a waste of time. I appeal to God." Photo: Xinhua/AFP

Pakistan said Friday that it would petition the United States to repatriate a Pakistani mother of three sentenced to 86 years in prison for attempted murder - a fate that has sparked furious protests.

A New York court found Aafia Siddiqui, the once brilliant scientist dubbed "Lady Qaeda" by US tabloids, guilty of the attempted murder of US military officers in Afghanistan, resulting in outrage in Pakistan.

"We will use every means to bring her back. Dr. Aafia is the daughter of the nation. We fought for her, and we will fight politically to bring her back," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Parliament.

The tough prison sentence sparked immediate outrage in Pakistani cities among Islamic activists, who took to the streets chanting anti-US slogans and burnt an effigy of President Barack Obama.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government would petition the US administration to review the sentence on a "humanitarian basis" and request that Siddiqui be handed over to Pakistan and dealt with under Pakistani law.

Siddiqui, 38, excelled as a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was found guilty of grabbing a rifle at an Afghan police station where she was being interrogated in July 2008.

Prosecutors said she picked up the weapon and opened fire on US servicemen and FBI representatives trying to take her into detention. She missed, and in a struggle she was shot by one of the US soldiers.

Defense lawyers argued that there was no physical evidence, such as fingerprints or gunpowder traces, to show that Siddiqui ever grabbed the rifle.

AFP