NYC: Solidarity with Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: Fill the Court Room on the final day of the Trial

500 Pearl St in lower Manhattan -- Federal Court Building – NYC

Stop the intimidation of observers to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's trial

The final day of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s trail will be this Monday, February 1 or Tuesday, February 2 at 500 Pearl St in lower Manhattan -- Federal Court Building – NYC.

Fill the court on the final days of trial. Resist the efforts to intimidate trial attendees.

In an effort to intimidate observers to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s trial Federal Marshals have instituted a new and unprecedented measure of copying photo identification and having names and addresses logged by court security officers before admission into the courtroom. This is especially threatening to the Pakistani immigrant community who is deeply concerned about the fate of their sister Aafia. An additional level of metal detectors is also posted outside the courtroom.

Pakistan USA Freedom Forum’s Secretary-General Mr. Shahid Comrade is asking organizations concerned with human, civil and constitutional rights, political parties, and media to demand fair and open courts and to insist that presiding Judge Richard Berman halt this intimidating attempt to deny justice to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. It is essential that Judge Berman publicly identify why this information was collected, find whether it was shared with any other agencies, and destroy any data collected in the process.

In further government efforts at isolation not a single Pakistani reporter was granted a press credential when opening statements began on Tuesday, January 19 and were hampered at every step in gaining access to the live courtroom proceedings.

Journalists from Pakistan with United Nations and U.S. State Department issued press credentials who work for major news services in Pakistan, including BBC Urdu, the Associated Press in Pakistan, Jang, Dawn, Geo and Haj TV were not issued credentials for the trial, though some had applied weeks ago.

The collecting of information and the exclusion of the media most interested in the case sets dangerous legal precedent.

Background to Trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui -

In Pakistan D.r Aafia Siddiqui is considered to be a ‘Daughter of the nation”. The Pakistani Supreme court recently called her case “the most important challenge for the country.” The Pakistani Parliament passed an overwhelming resolution in support of her and has forced the Pakistani government to pay U.S. lawyers $2 million for her legal defense in U.S. courts.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s torture and secret detention by U.S. forces in Afghanistan aroused enormous anger and indignation. Her continued imprisonment in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and the continuing brutal strip searches that she is subjected are internationally condemned.

Dr. Aafia is a 36-year-old Pakistani woman who is a U.S. educated neuroscientist and a graduate of MIT and Brandeis University . She was illegally kidnapped with her three young children in Karachi , Pakistan in 2003 and taken to U.S. custody in Afghanistan , where she was held in secret detention and tortured for 5 years. In 2008, as news of her continued secret detention and torture by U.S. forces in Afghanistan leaked out and aroused national anger at press conferences and meetings across Pakistan , U.S. officials suddenly claimed that they had just found and arrested Dr. Siddiqui in Afghanistan .

They claimed that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was shot and severely wounded during an interrogation by FBI agents in July 2008. Those directly involved in the shooting of Dr. Siddiqui were responsible for guiding the investigation of the crime scene. They claimed this 90 pound woman was shot because she grabbed a M4 assault rifle and attempted to murder U.S. soldiers and FBI agents while in U.S. custody.

Forensic evidence supports Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s innocence. Dr. Aafia's fingerprints were NOT on any gun, nor her DNA nor any residue nor any bullets. According to the prosecutors and all U.S. officials, she has no links to any ‘terrorist organizations’. Excluded from her trial in Federal Court is any mention of where Dr. Siddiqui was in the 5 years from her kidnapping until the day she was shot.

The only fact that all witnesses agree on is that Dr. Aafia herself was shot by U.S. personnel then taken from Ghazni to Bagram and finally flown to New York to be charged. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui at every court appearance continues to refuse her lawyers, to declare to the court that she has been tortured and to decry the pain of strip searches.

On January 28 Dr Siddiqui testified in court that she was tortured in a secret prison and that her missing children are all that has been on her mind every day. Dr. Siddiqui denied ever having shot at anyone, and appeared to remain unshaken even under intense cross-examination by the prosecution. She explained that she was shot by US soldiers while attempting to peek around the curtain partition in the interrogation room, while looking for a way to escape. Before her testimony was cut short by the Judge Berman, Dr. Siddiqui said that her fear of being sent back to a secret prison had made her anxious to escape.

The International Action Center , www.IACenter.org continues publicize Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s case, to mobilize for court attendance and to urge full support for the international call to: Free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui!

Sara Flounders, Co-Director of the International Action Center said:

"The trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui shows two things in the starkest terms.

1. The power of the U.S. government to use their courts, federal marshals and the U.S. media to cover the crimes they have committed against helpless prisoners held in secret detention: in two weeks of trial the question of where Aafia Siddiqui was held for 5 years and the fate of two of her children was never allowed to be raised in court. Presiding Judge Richard Berman refused to even ban the humiliating and brutal daily strip searches of Dr Siddiqui. Every technique to block coverage by the Pakistani media and attendance by the Pakistani community and human rights activists was used. Every aspect of this U.S. federal trial has been shameful, illegal and contemptible.

 2. The trial has also shown the courage of one determined woman to resist the overwhelming power of U.S. imperialism, its state apparatus, its military and its entire legal system. Dr. Siddiqui has suffered enormously and been severely damaged and brutalized but she has continued to assert her dignity and her innocence."

Fill the court in the final days of our sister Aafia’s trial -  Judge Richard Berman Court Room – 21B and the overflow video-conference courtrooms on the 9th floor of the Federal court building at 500 Pearl Street in downtown Manhattan .

Demand justice and a full accounting for ALL the missing and secretly detained prisoners in Pakistan and around the world!

For more information: www.FreeAafia.org

Cage Prisoners: www.cageprisoners.com – Aafia Siddiqui

International Justice Network: www.ijnetwork.org - Aafia Siddiqui

http://freeaafia.org/multimedia/dr-aafia-audio/155-trial-of-aafia-siddiqui-on-free-speech-radio-news-fsrn.html

http://feeds.feedburner.com/freeaafia/xkbN

Comrade Shahid, Secretary General , Pakistan USA Freedom Forum,

pakusaff@hotmail.com -- Ph: 917 280 0840