The MIT-trained Pakistani woman accused of firing at US Army officials and FBI agents should testify on her own behalf because she’s not crazy, the feds said today.
The US Attorney’s office letter comes a day after lawyers for Aafia Siddiqui asked a Manhattan federal court judge to bar their client from taking the stand in her own defense.
The lawyers claim that her request to testify “is driven by her severe mental illness and would turn the trial into a spectacle.”
But the feds argued the opposite, saying Siddiqui, “has a fundamental constitutional right to testify.”
The feds also claim that “there is absolutely no basis” to preclude her from taking the stand in her own defense.
Manhattan federal Judge Richard Berman said he’ll consider arguments from prosecutors before deciding on whether Siddiqui, 37, can testify.
