After both the prosecution and defence delivered their closing arguments, the 16-member jury went into deliberations to reach a verdict but could not finalize their views, now, the jury will re-deliberate over the case on Tuesday. According to experts, the verdict could come early next week, although there is no fixed timeframe for the judgement.
The defence’s main argument was that evidence by the prosecution witnesses lacked coherence and their varying accounts were, in fact, contradictory - not only to each other but to themselves.
Besides, the defence argued emphatically that there was no physical evidence produced by the prosecution to substantiate charges against Dr Aafia. The prosecution, they stated, tried to create an “atmosphere of fear” by producing handwritten notes by Aafia.
During her deposition, Dr Aafia clearly told the court that she recognised some of the notes but not all of them and that they had been put in a handbag given by her captors, who were threatening to harm her children.
Defence lawyers also focused on the fact that there were no fingerprints on the rifle allegedly used in the shooting incident and there were no holes in the walls created by the bullets allegedly fired. Nor was there any residue on the curtain that partitioned the room between Aafia and the US personnel in Afghanistan.
The prosecution pressed their charges by stating that there were six witnesses to prove the alleged incident. Aafia’s trial began in the US District Court on January 19. She is accused of grabbing an M4 rifle and firing at US soldiers and FBI agents who had gone to a police station in Ghazni, a day after her arrest in that Afghan city in July 2008.
