Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the neuroscientist and alleged jihadi serving an 86-year prison sentence in Texas, may be dead, her attorney said Monday at a National Press Club event.

Siddiqui, depending on whom you ask, is either an innocent political prisoner or a dangerous fanatic, and her cause has attracted support from both secular American activists and the militant Islamic State group.

Siddiqui, often referred to as "Lady al-Qaida" in press reports, earned an undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Brandeis University before moving to Pakistan in 2002.

Her defenders says she was kidnapped with her three children in 2003 and held for five years by or at the direction of the U.S. – possibly because of torture-gleaned misinformation from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – and that she was then framed as a terrorist.

The U.S. government says she’s a jihadi who married a nephew of Mohammed – the alleged 9/11 mastermind – after divorcing her first husband, and that she tried to murder Americans in Afghanistan.

In 2008, Siddiqui was detained by Afghan police who allegedly found notes mentioning so-called dirty bombs, plans to destroy drones and a list of targets for terror strikes inside the U.S. She allegedly picked up an unsecured M-4 rifle when U.S. personnel arrived and fired, but missed and was shot herself.

A New York jury in 2010 found her guilty of attempted murder and assault.

Attorney Steve Downs, enlisted by Siddiqui’s family, is requesting an independent medical evaluation to assure her supporters she’s actually alive at the Forth Worth, Texas, facility where she’s imprisoned.

“There’s concern whether she’s actually alive,” he said. “Only by having an independent medical inquest can we ensure she’s alive and well.”

Downs said the visit should feature Siddiqui's sister, Harvard Medical School-educated Fowzia Siddiqui. He recently visited her in Pakistan, where she works to treat epilepsy.

Downs said the family hasn't heard from Aafia Siddiqui in more than a year. He said while Pakistani consular staff attempted to visit her on two occasions during that time, they were unable to see her face as the back of the person they encountered was turned and the person refused to speak.

The attorney says he’s requesting the medical evaluation rather than visiting himself because if Siddiqui is alive, she “has a pattern of not trusting lawyers,” so he's not sure she’d agree to see him. She allegedly tried to fire other defense attorneys because of their Jewish ancestry, though the lawyer who replaced them said it was because they were funded by Pakistan’s government.

Melissa Grant – warden’s secretary at the Federal Medical Center Carswell, where online records say Siddiqui is located – tells U.S. News that Siddiqui is alive, and that she personally saw the inmate Wednesday.

Many Americans know of Siddiqui because the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, offered last year to release her in exchange for U.S. citizens it had abducted. The group reportedly offered to swap her for journalist James Foley, who was later murdered, and Kayla Mueller, who the group claims was killed in an airstrike.

“ISIS is trying to get in on the popularity of Aafia,” Downs said. “She has nothing to do with ISIS. She was locked up before ISIS even got going.”

Her attorney suggested the U.S. government held Siddiqui captive at black sites, then released her – disoriented and looking as if she had been attacked – with a bag full of documents on terrorist plots. He denied she shot at the U.S. personnel who attempted to interview her.

Mauri Saalakhan of the Peace Thru Justice Foundation, who was contacted by a pastor for Mueller’s family and worked as a go-between with Siddiqui’s family after the Islamic State group demanded a prisoner exchange, cautioned against conflating her with supportive jihadi groups.

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Saalakhan pointed out that a petition on whitehouse.gov attracted more than 100,000 signatures demanding Siddiqui's repatriation to Pakistan.