Pakistani scientist and terror suspect Dr Aafia Siddiqui might have escaped the 86-year jail term by a US court, had Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani acted in this regard, former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has claimed.

Exposing dubious role of Haqqani in Aafia’s case, Cynthia said that she was coming to Pakistan to share with its government a vital piece of information, which could have averted the sentence, but the Pakistani Embassy in Washington denied her visa, The Nation reported.

“Aafia Siddiqui might have been prevented from receiving the 86-year sentence in the United States had Ambassador Hussain Haqqani granted me visa to Pakistan,” she said.

According to a diplomatic source, Haqqani had refused visa to ‘the very excellent female politician Cynthia McKinney’ who was part of an international delegation due to travel to Islamabad, to raise concerns about the Aafia case with the Government of Pakistan.

Last week, a US federal court had sentenced Aafia to 86 years in prison for trying to kill American agents and military officers after Afghan police detained her in 2008.