'Al-Qaeda supporter' faces attempted murder trial in US

Aafia Siddiqui has refused to co-operate with her defence team A Pakistani woman, alleged by US authorities to have links to al-Qaeda, is set to stand trial in New York on attempted murder charges. Aafia Siddiqui, 37, is charged with shooting at FBI agents while being detained in Afghanistan in 2008. Prosecutors say Ms Siddiqui picked up a rifle while she was waiting to be questioned in a police compound in Ghazni and fired towards US agents. Ms Siddiqui, who was shot during the incident, insists she is innocent. Her lawyers dispute the prosecution's version of events and say she never touched a gun. In 2004 the US named her one of its most-wanted al-Qaeda fugitives, but she has never been charged for any specific terror plots. Courtroom outburst She has refused to work with her defence lawyers and argued that she would not get a fair trial if there were Jewish people on the jury. Last week, she was removed from the courtroom by the judge after shouting out: "I had nothing to do with 9/11". In July 2009, a judge ruled that Ms Siddiqui was mentally fit to stand trial. Her lawyers had said that she had suffered from hallucinations during her period in pre-trial detention. Supporters say that she vanished between 2003 and 2008 and that she was held in US-linked detention centres during that time. In 2008, she was initially detained in Afghanistan after being discovered with notes referring to what authorities say was a "mass casualty attack". Science graduate The youngest of three children of a British-trained doctor, Ms Siddiqui went to school in Karachi. She continued her education in the US, graduating with a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she became heavily involved in on-campus Islamic activities. Although her family denies this, Ms Siddiqui is said to have married a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the self-confessed orchestrators of the 2001 attacks on the US.