We urge all individuals concerned with human rights to
sign this international petition to U.S. and Pakistani government officials,
urging the immediate repatriation to Pakistan of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
Aafia Siddiqui holds a place in the hearts of people of conscience
internationally irrespective of their faith, nationality or location. There is
already immense international outrage about her case. Aafia Siddiqui has
repeatedly maintained in court appearances that she was tortured while in U.S.
custody.
This U.S.-educated doctor of neuroscience has come to symbolize the many
hundreds of Pakistanis who have been secretly disappeared, detained and
tortured, as well as the national outrage at the continuing deadly U.S. drone
attacks.
The plight of the disappeared and missing in Pakistan is a cause of great
national pain. Let us begin with this act of compassion to address this
grievous problem.
Dr. Siddiqui’s five years in secret detention in Pakistan and
Afghanistan, her grievous injuries, her two years in solitary confinement in
the U.S. and her trial in New York City were continuing top news in Pakistan.
Civil rights, religious and women’s organizations marched and petitioned,
demanding the return of this “daughter of the nation” to
Pakistan.
Dr. Siddiqui’s family and supporters have launched an international
campaign for her repatriation to Pakistan. Aafia Siddiqui’s elderly
mother is seriously ill and has pleaded for her daughter’s return.
Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, Aafia Siddiqui’s older sister, in stressing the
urgency of a campaign for Aafia Siddiqui’s repatriation, explained that
under U.S. law a foreigner tried by a U.S. court could be repatriated to the
country of his or her nationality on the request of their own government before
the pronouncement of a sentence. She said there were 19 such precedents in
which prisoners after indictment were repatriated to their countries on the
request of their respective governments.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is neither a U.S. citizen nor a permanent resident. She had
only one passport, issued by the Pakistan government.
Dr. Siddiqui was not charged with committing any crime on U.S. soil; therefore
she should not have been extradited to the U.S. for trial but either tried in
Afghanistan or extradited to Pakistan. Dr. Siddiqui is not charged with
terrorism nor is she charged with injuring or harming anyone anywhere. She is a
victim of terrible life-threatening injuries.
The Pakistan government through diplomatic channels should insist on Aafia
Siddiqui’s repatriation. The U.S. government, based on overwhelming
Pakistani sentiment for Aafia Siddiqui’s return, should grant this
humanitarian request.
Dr. Siddiqui was convicted despite all physical and forensic evidence that she
could not have committed the acts with which she was charged.
The U.S. government should release all the secret documents regarding Aafia
Siddiqui’s disappearance that were suppressed at her trial in NYC and the
documents on the many other disappeared and missing people in Pakistan. As we
have seen in the recent release of documents by Wikileaks, we cannot count on
governments to give a true accounting of events that may prove embarrassing to
various government officials.
BACKGROUND TO CASE
In March 2003, at the age of 30, Dr. Siddiqui disappeared along with her three
children from a street in Karachi, Pakistan. On March 31, 2003, the Pakistan
media reported that Dr. Siddiqui had been arrested and turned over to U.S.
officials.
Dr. Siddiqui mysteriously reappeared on the streets of Ghazni, Afghanistan,
following five years of secret detention. There she was immediately
re-arrested, shot and almost killed. After emergency treatment, she was brought
to the United States and held in solitary confinement for almost two years
before being placed on trial in a federal court in New York City.
The government charges were preposterous. Dr. Siddiqui had supposedly been
arrested in July 2008, five years after her disappearance. The U.S. claims that
when U.S. military personnel came to interrogate her after the arrest, Siddiqui
grabbed a U.S. soldier’s M4 gun, fired off two rounds and was herself
shot while being subdued.
Questions of how the bullets, supposedly fired by Siddiqui, failed to hit a
single one of the 20 to 30 people in a small, crowded room, or hit any wall or
floor, or leave any residue or fingerprints, were never answered. Witness
testimonies often contradicted their earlier sworn testimonies and the
testimony of others. The prosecution urged the jury to ignore science and
irrefutable facts and believe the contradictory testimony of U.S. Special
Forces soldiers and FBI agents.
Despite her severe wounds and her pleas for mercy the court imposed daily
abusive and painful strip searches. The court through unprecedented security
measures sought to close the trial and intimidate all support. Most important
is that throughout her trial Aafia Siddiqui refused her lawyers and made it
clear that she was not represented by lawyers of her choice.
Dr. Siddiqui’s missing son Ahmed was reunited with his aunt in late 2008
while daughter Maryum was dropped near her aunt’s home in Karachi in
April 2010 after she had been missing for seven years. Dr. Siddiqui’s
youngest child, Suleman, who would now be about seven years old, remains
missing and is feared dead.
There have been massive demonstrations in Pakistan’s major cities
demanding the return of this 38-year-old mother, now dubbed the “daughter
of Pakistan.”
For more information on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's trial and
treatment and the campaign to repatriate her, go to:
http://www.FreeAafia.org or
http://www.JusticeForAafia.org.
SIGN THE PETITION TO U.S. AND PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT
OFFICIALS.
You can send this message or you can edit and revise it.
COPIES WILL ALSO BE SENT TO MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA IN THE U.S. AND PAKISTAN.
Dear President Barack Obama, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed
Yousaf Raza Gilani :
I urge you to repatriate Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to her native Pakistan as a matter
of urgency. Given all the facts and circumstances of this case, repatriation of
Dr. Siddiqui to Pakistan would not only serve the interests of justice, but is
also warranted on humanitarian grounds.
There are numerous credible reports that Dr. Siddiqui was abducted from
Pakistan with her three young children in March 2003. Dr. Siddiqui claims that
her captors detained her in a series of secret prisons for five years during
which time she was abused in a variety of ways and tortured. Her youngest son,
Suleman, remains missing to this day.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a citizen of Pakistan. She was not charged with
committing any crime on U.S. soil, nor is she a U.S. citizen. She should not
have been extradited to the U.S.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is not charged with terrorism nor has she been charged with
injuring or harming anyone anywhere. She is a victim of terrible life
threatening injuries.
The plight of the disappeared and missing in Pakistan is a cause of great
national pain. Let us begin with this act of compassion to address this
grievous problem.
In light of the circumstances of this case, in which it appears that at a
minimum, Dr. Siddiqui suffered severe physical and emotional trauma, we call
upon you to exercise all lawful authority to allow Dr. Siddiqui to be
repatriated to Pakistan on humanitarian grounds.
Based on the petition at:
http://www.iacenter.org/SiddiquiPetition
More than 75,000 emails have been sent with this message urging compassion,
justice for Aafia Siddiqui and respect for the national sovereignty of
Pakistan
