The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui

by shammy Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:14 am

Everyone agrees that she's a 36-year-old mother of three young children. But while the New York Post calls her the "Al Qaeda mom," and federal prosecutors claim that when she was arrested in July she was carrying a bag packed with chemicals and handwritten notes about a "mass casualty attack," Aafia Siddiqui's lawyers say she's a victim.

"This woman has been tortured and she needs help," explained Elizabeth Fink, one of her defense counsel, at an August 11 court hearing.

Siddiqui disappeared in Pakistan in March 2003. Together with her three children - then aged 6 years, 5 years, and 6 months - she reportedly left her parents' home in Karachi to visit her uncle in Islamabad, but never arrived. Last July, more than five years later, she mysteriously reappeared in US custody in Afghanistan. Based on their interviews with her, and a pattern of similar cases, her lawyers claim that she has spent the last five years as a secret captive of Pakistani or American authorities.

Siddiqui's oldest child, Ahmed, was found with her in Afghanistan. The whereabouts of her two younger children are unknown.

Disappearance from Karachi, Reappearance in Ghazni

The name Aafia Siddiqui first came to public attention on March 18, 2003, when the FBI issued an alert requesting information about her. Siddiqui, a US-educated neuroscientist, was then living in Pakistan. The US government later alleged that Siddiqui was linked to al Qaeda suspects Majid Khan and Ali 'Abd al-'Aziz Ali (also known as Ammar al-Baluchi), and news outlets reported that she had acted as an al Qaeda fixer.

Majid Khan and Ali 'Abd al-'Aziz Ali both disappeared from Karachi at almost precisely the same time as Siddiqui did. They did not reappear until September 2006, after their transfer to Guantanamo from CIA custody. For more than three years, they had been secretly held by the CIA or one of the CIA's proxies. Like many others, they had been arrested by the Pakistani intelligence services and handed over to CIA as part of the "war on terror."

When Siddiqui disappeared, on approximately March 28, 2003, the Pakistani papers mentioned reports that she had been "picked up in Karachi by an intelligence agency" and "shifted to an unknown place for questioning." A year later, in a follow-up story, the Pakistani papers quoted a Pakistani government spokesman who said that she had been handed over to US authorities in 2003.

But unlike Khan and a number of others, Siddiqui did not reappear in US custody in 2006; nor was she heard from in 2007. It was not until July 2008, after her case had started gaining political notoriety, that she suddenly reappeared in Afghanistan.

According to the official US account, Afghan police arrested Aafia Siddiqui and her son in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on July 17, 2008. The federal indictment against Siddiqui states that the Afghan police officers who arrested her found suspicious items in her handbag, including notes referring "to the construction of 'dirty bombs,' chemical and biological weapons, and other explosives." Siddiqui's lawyers reject this account, suggesting that the charges against Siddiqui are a sham.

read on

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/mariner/20080908.html

http://alistiqaamah.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/dr-aafias-sister-the-american-ambassador-is-lying/

by Mohamed Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:48 pm

She was sentenced to 86 years in US prison, So sad!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100924/ts_alt_afp/usattackspakistanafghanistan_20100924073416

by Mohamed Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:12 pm

"We are deeply saddened by the harsh sentence passed on Dr Aafia Siddiqui by Judge Richard Berman today. At such a difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with Aafia’s family, who have been separated from her since March 2003.

It has now been over seven and a half years since Dr Siddiqui was abducted with her three young children by Pakistani and American agencies. She has since been separated from her children and family, detained in a series of secret prisons and physically and psychologically abused by her captors. Following a blatantly prejudiced and unfair trial in which little conclusive evidence of her guilt was presented, she was found guilty.

We hoped that Judge Berman would have opened his eyes to the manifest injustice that has been committed against Dr Siddiqui and repatriated her to her country. But it seems that Judge Berman was adamant in his position despite the enormous level of public support for Aafia. Last week, Iran, in a goodwill gesture, released Sarah Shourd, an American woman accused of espionage, a crime against the state punishable by death. We are disappointed that the United States has been unable to exercise a similar degree of mercy and leniency in the case of another innocent woman who stands accused of crimes against its government.

While we are disappointed by Judge Berman’s decision, we condemn in the strongest terms the stance of the Pakistani government towards this beloved daughter of the nation. While we must never look to the wolf for protection, we expect the shepherd to care for his flock. The Pakistani government has from the outset been complicit in Aafia’s disappearance and detention, and has displayed nothing but contempt for its people and dignity through its cowardly stance in requesting her repatriation. They are a stain upon the honourable reputation of the country.

JFAC will continue the struggle for justice for Dr Aafia to try and secure her freedom and unite her with her family and loved ones. We remind Aafia’s supporters that this struggle may seem tiresome but as Imam Ahmad advised his student, we will only find rest when our feet set foot in paradise."

http://www.justiceforaafia.org/articles/press-releases/642-jfac-statement-on-sentencing-of-aafia-siddiqui

by Sponsored content

The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui

The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui

Re: The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui

Re: The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui

Re: The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui