Aafia Siddiqui (Urdu: عافیہ صدیقی; born March 2, 1972) is an American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist. Not long after the September 11 attacks, Dr. Siddiqui left the United States for Pakistan in 2002. Since the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in March 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by the Inter-Services Intelligence, it is believed that Mohammed mentioned Siddiqui’s name during his interrogation. He has later claimed that he gave names of innocent people under torture to "please his captors". Siddiqui’s lawyers believe her name was one of these. After she was named by him, Siddiqui disappeared for five years. Siddiqui and her children's whereabouts and activities from March 2003 to July 2008 are a matter of dispute. She reappeared in Afghanistan under detention in 2008. Although authorities claimed she was found in possession of bomb-making instructions and materiel (including sodium cyanide) at the time of her arrest in Afghanistan, Dr. Siddiqui was not charged for any terrorist-related activities. Instead she was tried and convicted in U.S. federal court for assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan - charges that carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. Siddiqui was ultimately sentenced by a United States district court to 86 years in prison in a trial that critics have called "a grave miscarriage of justice".
Read more about Aafia Siddiqui: Background, Arrest in Afghanistan, Taliban and Al-Qaeda Reaction, Reaction in Pakistan, Failed "Swap" With Raymond Allen Davis