US following developments in Aafia's case

WASHINGTON: - The U.S. administration is "closely" following developments in Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's case, a State Department spokesman said as her son was turned over to her family in Pakistan on Monday.

"I can say only that we're following the matter very closely," the

department spokesman, Sean McCormack said, when asked for comments on the

development at the regular briefing.

The 12-year-old boy, Mohammad Ahmed, was detained in Afghanistan along with his mother -- U.S.-educated Ms. Siddiqui -- in July, and his fate since then has been one of the many unanswered questions about her case. Ms. Siddiqui is now in New York facing federal charges.

Afghan authorities released the boy to the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, after learning that he holds dual citizenship in Pakistan and the United States, according to press reports.

Gideon Oliver, one of Ms. Siddiqui's attorneys, said that he and Elizabeth

Fink, Ms. Siddiqui's lead attorney, were preparing to meet with their client "to tell her the good news," a dispatch in the Washington Post said.

The whereabouts of the two other children, who family members say

disappeared with Siddiqui in 2003, are not known.

Ms. Siddiqui is a behavioural scientist with degrees from Brandeis

University and MIT. According to a federal indictment filed against her in

New York this month, Ms. Siddiqui and her son were taken into custody while wandering near the home of the governor of Ghazni province.

U.S. officials allege that while in Afghan custody, Ms. Siddiqui grabbed the M4 rifle of a U.S. soldier who had come to question her. She is accused of firing several shots at him and other Americans and was herself shot in the subsequent scuffle, according to the indictment. Charged in a New York federal court last month, she could face a possible life sentence for allegedly attempting to kill the Americans.

She is due to appear for her indictment hearing on Sept 22. But last week,

Dr. Siddiqui was diagnosed with psychosis by Bureau of Prisons psychologist Dr. Diane McLean, according to a letter from the warden of Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center to Judge Richard Berman, who had ordered her examination.

She is reported to be in "depressed mood, anxiety, ruminative thoughts

concerning her son's welfare, poor sleep, and moderate appetite." The letter also describes a hallucination: "She also reported seeing her daughter in her cell, and was unable to apply appropriate reality testing to this phenomenon."