New York: A US-trained Pakistani scientist being tried on charges she tried to kill American personnel in Afghanistan testified without the jury present on Thursday that she was "dizzy all the time" from multiple gunshot wounds when first questioned by the FBI in 2008.
Aafia Siddiqui, 37, took the stand over the objections of her defence lawyers as US District Judge Richard M Berman sought to decide whether prosecutors could question her about incriminating statements she allegedly made to FBI agents.
Berman told Siddiqui she had a right to testify despite insistence by her lawyers that she should be prevented from incriminating herself because of her "diminished capacity”.
Asked by Berman if she wanted to testify, Siddiqui said, "Yes sir”.
Siddiqui was shot by a US Army officer during an encounter at an Afghan police station. Sitting on the witness stand without the jury present, Siddiqui was asked about her condition when FBI agents questioned her in a Bagram hospital.
"I was dizzy all the time pretty much and my head hurt tremendously and my back hurt. I also had congestion in my chest," she said.
Later at Bagram, she said she offered to "assist the FBI in ending the war in Afghanistan," though she said she did not know that people asking her questions were FBI agents.
PTI
