NEW YORK: Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist serving an 86-year prison sentence for shooting at US soldiers is seeking to have her conviction overturned on the grounds that she did not have proper legal representation.
Siddiqui said in court papers filed on Monday in federal court in New York City that her 2010 guilty verdict should be vacated. She said a judge forced her to accept three lawyers paid for by the Pakistani government.
The 42-year-old Siddiqui has a doctorate in neuroscience from Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
Siddiqui was branded a terrorism suspect after she left the US and married a nephew of self-proclaimed Sept 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
She was wounded during a confrontation with US authorities who interrogated her in Afghanistan in 2008. Witnesses say she shot at the Americans.