Dr Aafia's lawyers appeal for reduced sentence because of mental illness

Dr Aaifa Siddiqui's lawyers have appealed to a US court to reduce her sentence to 12 years as she is mentally ill.

Pakistani scientist Dr Aaifa Siddiqui's lawyers have appealed to a US court to reduce her sentence to 12 years as she is mentally ill.

Lawyers for Aafia Siddiqui made the request in a filing in US District Court in Manhattan, where she was convicted in February.


The lawyers said Siddiqui was driven to her crime by mental illness.

They described her behaviour in Ghazni, Afghanistan, as bizarre, saying Siddiqui was cut off from any form of rational thought by her knowledge that US authorities had engaged in the torture of detainees overseas.

Dr Aafia Siddiqui is scheduled to be sentenced in mid-August but the date is expected to be moved to September or later.
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