A closer look at the case of Aafia Siddiqui, jailed in Texas

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who authorities say held hostages inside a Texas synagogue had demanded the release of a Pakistani woman who is imprisoned nearby on charges of trying to kill American service members in Afghanistan. The woman whose freedom was sought, Aafia Siddiqui, is serving an 86-year prison sentence after being convicted in Manhattan in 2010 on charges that she sought to shoot U.S. military officers while being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier. For the Justice Department, it was a significant conviction in the fight against international extremism. But to her supporters, the case embodied what they saw as an overzealous post Sept. 11-American judicial system.