Colleyville, TX: FBI aids in Texas Synagogue hostage situation | News Today

This assessment is based on both discussions with the suspect and audio heard on the synagogue’s live stream, officials said.

The lawyer who represents Siddiqui said on Saturday that she was “completely uninvolved in” the hostage-taking at the synagogue.

“She does not want any violence perpetrated against any human being, especially in her name,” Marwa Elbially told CNN by phone. “It obviously has nothing to do with Dr. Siddiqui or his family.”

At the hostage taker’s request, the congregation’s rabbi being held hostage called a well-known rabbi in New York, according to two officials briefed on the investigation.

The FBI has questioned the New York-based rabbi who spoke to the hostage taker earlier on Saturday. The hostage taker, who has no connection to the rabbi, told her that Siddiqi had been framed and wanted her released, officials said.

Congregation member Stacey Silverman described watching the live stream for over an hour, listening to the suspect rant, sometimes alternating between saying “I’m not a criminal” and apologizing for the situation. The suspect was hesitating between different languages ​​and “screaming hysterically”, she said.

“At all times I thought there was going to be a gunshot,” Silverman said, adding that the suspect claimed to have a bomb.

Congregation Beth Israel is affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism, whose website says the congregation serves 157 member families.

The synagogue, established in 1999 with 25 member families, was the first Jewish congregation in Northeast Tarrant County, according to the CBI website. The CBI community officially opened in its new building in 2005.

CBI holds Sabbath morning services every Saturday, and members and nonmembers alike are welcome to watch from home on the livestream, a practice many synagogues have adopted in the wake of the pandemic.

Who is Aafia Sidiqqui?

In 2010, Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison by a federal judge in New York after a 14-day trial. A jury found her guilty of attempted murder of US nationals and government employees, as well as assault on US officers and employees.

Siddiqui – a Pakistani scientist who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a doctorate from Brandeis University – was arrested for questioning by Afghan National Police in 2008, who said they found handwritten notes referring to potential targets of an “attack which caused numerous victims”, according to a federal indictment.

When a group of Americans tried to talk to her, prosecutors say she was able to grab a US soldier’s rifle and open fire on the interrogation team, although no one was hit by gunshots.

At sentencing, the judge found that an amelioration of terrorism applied to her crimes, citing statements she made that the judge found demonstrating her actions and intent to retaliate against the government. American, including “I Hate Americans” and “Death to America”.

Siddiqui’s defense argued that she was incompetent to stand trial. But Siddiqui repeatedly clashed with her lawyers, telling the judge at sentencing: “If anyone thinks it’s my paranoia or whatever, I’m not paranoid. I don’t I’m not mentally ill. I don’t agree with that.” She also said she believed Israel “orchestrated 9/11.”

His conviction has been the subject of regular protests in the United States and abroad. Frequent protests have been organized by the Aafia Foundation, a group that bears his name. This group claimed that she had been assaulted in prison last year.

Her family has said in CNN interviews that she is not a terrorist.

During a deadly hostage situation in Algeria in 2013, a spokesperson for a militant group offered to release hostages if Aafia Siddiqui were freed from US prison, along with Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the mastermind of the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, since deceased. in prison.

Siddiqui is being held in a medical facility part of a federal prison in Fort Worth, with a release date set at 60.