Terror Suspect Faked Mental Illness, Prosecutors Say
Mark Lenihan/Associated Press Aafia Siddiqui,a neuroscientist, is accused of trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan.
A federal prosecutor in Manhattan said Thursday that two government psychiatrists had concluded that a Pakistani neuroscientist charged with trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan had been faking her symptoms of mental illness.
An earlier court-ordered psychological evaluation had concluded that the neuroscientist, Aafia Siddiqui, 37, was unfit for trial as a result of a mental disease, “which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense,” a court document shows.
Then last month, prosecutors said two new evaluations by government-retained psychiatrists had found differently, that she was not suffering from mental illness. But the prosecutors had not previously said the doctors concluded she was faking.
On Thursday, an assistant United States attorney, David Raskin, told a judge in Federal District Court that the psychiatrists, each working independently and unaware of the other’s findings, concluded that the symptoms that had been seen “were attributed to malingering.”
“It was manipulation by the defendant,” Mr. Raskin told Judge Richard M. Berman, “as opposed to any signs of serious mental illness.”
According to a government document, one psychiatrist wrote that Ms. Siddiqui “has most likely fabricated reported psychiatric symptoms to give credibility to her claims that she suffers a mental disorder.”
The psychiatrist added that Ms. Siddiqui may believe a finding of incompetence “could serve to both prevent prosecution while at the same time facilitating rapid repatriation,” the document says.
Ms. Siddiqui’s lawyer, Dawn M. Cardi, said in court that she intended to retain her own experts to review the new evaluations and to examine her client. Ms. Cardi said by telephone after the hearing, “We assert that she’s not malingering.”
Ms. Siddiqui, who studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, is being held at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth.
She has been held since last summer when she was first brought to New York for prosecution from Afghanistan.
She had been taken into custody after being found loitering outside an Afghan police station with suspicious items in her handbag. Prosecutors have said that while she was detained, she picked up an unsecured rifle and fired at least two shots toward a soldier who was part of an American team of F.B.I. agents and military personnel who were about to question her. No one was hit. Ms. Siddiqui has pleaded not guilty.
Judge Berman said he would hold a hearing on June 1 to determine Ms. Siddiqui’s competency. He set a tentative trial date of July 6, in the event she is found fit for trial.