Pakistani scientist sentenced to 86 years for attempted murder

A Pakistani woman trained as a scientist in the U.S. was sentenced to 86 years in prison Thursday after she was convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan two years ago.

A jury in Manhattan convicted Aafia Siddiqui on seven charges, including attempted murder and armed assault on U.S. officers, in February. She will serve her sentence at a facility in Texas where she was previously held while awaiting trial.

Siddiqui, 38, was convicted of grabbing a soldier's M-4 assault rifle and trying to shoot an assembled group of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and soldiers at an Afghan police compound in July 2008.

When she was arrested in 2008, she was carrying in her purse instructions on making explosives and a list of New York landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.

Siddiqui received graduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University in biology and neuroscience while living in the U.S. between 1991 and June 2002.