MANHATTAN (CN) - A federal judge sentenced 38-year-old Pakistani neuroscientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison for trying to kill U.S. soldiers and federal agents while in custody in Afghanistan two years ago. The announcement by U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman was met with a cry of "shame" inside the courtroom, approval from federal prosecutors, and protests from supporters who maintain her innocence.
Crowds went through two rounds of security to fill the courtroom, and spectators lined nearly every inch of benches. Journalist and sketch artists were directed to sit in the same box where a jury unanimously convicted Siddiqui of attempted murder and related crimes.
Judge Berman opened the proceedings by stating that it was difficult to arrive at a "fair and reasonable" sentence in this case, "especially for a woman of Dr. Siddiqui's talents, intelligence and possibilities."
Educated at MIT and Brandeis, Siddiqui does not appear to fit the profile of a woman the New York Daily News has called "Lady al-Qaida."
The government claimed that Siddiqui tried to use her scientific knowledge for biological and chemical warfare. But her defense attorney, Dawn M. Cardi, countered that Siddiqui studied cognitive behavior, a field with no military application.
"Dr. Siddiqui is an enigma," Cardi said.
Indeed, Berman spoke at length about the apparent inconsistencies, paradoxes and remarkable facts of Siddiqui's case and behavior.
The judge recounted how Siddiqui invoked Zionist conspiracies, demanded that her jury undergo genetic testing for Jewish heritage, and then sent a letter to his chambers, claiming, "I am not against Israelis or any people, certainly not the Jewish people."
Siddiqui has had a strained relationship with her defense team, trying to fire them during her trial, refusing to speak to them in prison before the sentencing, and shaking her head throughout her attorney's plea for a shorter sentence.
She even strongly objected to her attorneys' filing an appeal on her behalf.
Still, Cardi called her a "peaceful soul," and Siddiqui spent much of her speaking time urging her supporters to reject violence and "forgive everyone in my case" in the trial that she condemned.
"Forgive the men who shot me. Forgive Judge Berman," Siddiqui urged.
A devout Muslim, Siddiqui cheerfully told the judge it was "not of crucial importance" that she knew she might face the rest of her life in prison, "because God has put contentment in my heart."
The facts of the case are as intriguing as the woman herself.
During what Judge Berman called the "gap years" of her biography between 2003 and 2008, the government says Siddiqui was recruiting for the Taliban and planning attacks on major U.S. landmarks, but she was never charged on these grounds.
Her supporters say that, during this period, she was abducted in a taxi, separated from her three children and tortured in an Afghani secret prison.
Judge Berman insisted that there was "no evidence" of torture in the court records, but Cardi replied that the government would not provide documents related to her client even after she went through Top Secret clearance. She added that details may emerge after journalists submit FOIA requests in years to come, but government disclosure is "not going to happen voluntarily."