Judge declines lawyer's offer to strip

NEW YORK, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Courtroom theatrics approached the risque in New York when a lawyer offered to remove her own clothes to demonstrate a jailhouse strip search.

Attorney Elizabeth Fink told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman she would strip to illustrate the procedure her client, accused terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, had refused to comply with.

"I think I know what a strip search is," the judge told Fink in declining her proposal.

The New York Daily News said Friday that Siddiqui refused to remove her clothing prior to Thursday's arraignment on charges she fired shots at U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Fink said her client's Muslim beliefs required modesty.

Berman ruled, however, that the prison rule requiring Siddiqui to be strip-searched whenever she leaves her cell would remain in effect.