[Lillie_Steins]

Aafia Siddiqui demands no Jewish jurors

From The Times
January 16, 2010


From news article:
A Pakistani scientist who is the only woman accused of working with the al-Qaeda leadership has demanded that Jews should be excluded from the jury at her trial in New York.

Aafia Siddiqui called for jurors to undergo genetic testing in an outburst in federal court in Manhattan yesterday.

“If they have a Zionist or Israeli background . . . they are all mad at me,” Ms Siddiqui, an American-educated neuroscientist, said. “I have a feeling everyone here is them [sic] — subject to genetic testing. They should be excluded if you want to be fair,” she told the judge.

Prosecutors say that Ms Siddiqui, 37, who has a biology degree from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD from Brandeis University, fled the US in 2003 after marrying an al-Qaeda operative.

.....

Nevertheless, Ms Siddiqui, who wore a white scarf covering her face in court, vowed not to co-operate with the trial. “I’m boycotting the trial, just to let all of you know,” she said. “There’s too many injustices.

“I’m out of this,” she added.

After the judge thanked her, she put her head down on the defence table and went silent as prosecutors flashed a photograph of her face on a television monitor.

“I don’t trust you,” she told the judge at one point before the potential jurors packed the courtroom.

The outburst was the latest of a series of courtroom rants by Ms Siddiqui, who has also tried to fire her lawyers.

Her trial had been delayed for psychiatric tests, but most concluded that she was faking mental illness. After jury selection is complete, opening arguments will begin on Tuesday.