"Gray Lady of Bagram" to boycott her terrorism trial

A U.S.-trained scientist accused of shooting at FBI agents and helping al-Qaida vowed Thursday to boycott her January trial. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui interrupted lawyers at her pretrial hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to announce that she did not plan to participate in her trial, scheduled for Jan. 19. She declared that "I am innocent of all the charges and I can prove it, but I will not do it in this court." Siddiqui was brought to the United States in August 2008 after she was accused of grabbing a U.S. Army officer's rifle in Afghanistan several weeks earlier and firing at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. She was shot in the abdomen in the fight and was charged with attempted murder and assault. Siddiqui, barely five feet tall and a hundred pounds, was denied medical treatment for her wounds. Since her return to the U.S., she has been subjected to degrading body cavity searches before and after every visit. Lawyers for Siddiqui tried to convince the court that she was mentally incompetent to stand trial, citing in part her refusal to cooperate with lawyers and the reports of a psychologist who said she suffers from delusional disorder and depression. U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman rejected that argument after prosecutors pointed to psychological reports that concluded she was faking mental illness. Siddiqui was abducted from her mother's home in Karachi in 2003 and was missing for five years. She is believed to have been the so-called "gray woman of Bagram", the notorious Afghan prison's only female inmate, who was held in solitary confinement throughout those years, and tortured repeatedly. The FBI believes that Dr. Siddiqui was involved in a diamond smuggling operation in 2001 aimed at raising funds for al Qaeda, and that she is married to a suspected al Qaeda operative who allegedly conspired to blow up bus stations and poison the water supply in Baltimore. Siddiqui's family maintains that she was the victim of identity theft. Berman on Thursday rejected defense arguments aimed at tossing out charges against the 37-year-old woman that carry a potential minimum prison sentence of 30 years and a maximum penalty of life in prison.