IJN represented the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani mother of three who is currently imprisoned by the United States government at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Siddiqui was convicted of criminal charges related to an incident in which she was shot by U.S. soldiers, allegedly in self-defense, while in police custody in Afghanistan. Her trial, which took place in U.S. federal court in New York, left unanswered important questions about her case – including the circumstances of her disappearance from Karachi, Pakistan in 2003.
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IJN Press Release: Statement in Response to Siddiqui Sentence
September 23, 2010, New York, NY. The International Justice Network, attorneys for the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, issued the following statement today after Dr. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison by Judge Berman at the US federal court in Manhattan.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui - who has never caused harm to anyone - has now been condemned to spend the rest of her life in a maximum security prison in the United States. This sentence is not only unjust because of its harshness to Dr. Siddiqui - but also because of its impact on her two small children in Pakistan who may never see their mother again. But the greatest injustice of all is that those who are responsible for the kidnapping, disappearance, and abuse of Dr. Siddiqui and her children without cause have yet to answer for their actions. ]]>]]>
A New York jury has convicted the US-educated Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui of attempted murder for shooting at US forces while jailed in Afghanistan in 2008. None of the Americans were injured, but Siddiqui was shot and wounded while in US custody.
]]>..."Aafia walked into that courtroom already labelled a terrorist by prosecutors, despite the fact that she was not on trial for any terrorism related offence," [Tina] Foster said.
]]>is expected to end today, in U.S. Federal Court in the Southern
District of New York. Tina M. Foster, Executive Director the
International Justice Network, and spokesperson for Muhammad Siddiqui,
Aafia’s brother, issued the following statement today on behalf of her
U.S.-based family:
After nearly two weeks of proceedings, and more than a dozen different
witness testimonies, our sister's trial will finally come to an end
today. While the sheer lack of evidence presented by the U.S.
government in this case is reason enough to expect acquittal, Aafia's
own testimony eliminates any doubt that she did not commit the crimes
alleged. We hope that the jury will not be prejudiced by the
prosecution's repeated attempts to falsely portray our sister as a
terrorist. While on the witness stand last Thursday, Aafia herself
told prosecutors "Don't build a case on hate, build a case on facts."
We are confident that if the jury considers only the evidence in this
case, Aafia will not be convicted of any crime.
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oath for the first time 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, Dr. Siddiqui mentioned that
her fear of being sent back to a secret prison had made her anxious to
escape.
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that he never saw Dr. Siddiqui pick up a gun. The defense then rested, and
the prosecution offered rebuttal witnesses, intended to respond to the
evidence presented by the defense. First, the prosecution called a firing
range owner, Gary Woodworth, who testified that he remembered Dr. Siddiqui
coming to the shooting range. However, Mr. Woodworth also admitted that
there were no records of Dr. Siddiqui ever having visited the shooting
range, and that even if she had, it could have been as part of her physical
education requirements at MIT. The prosecution also called FBI Special
Agent Bruce Kammerman, who testified that while recuperating at Bagram
Airbase hospital, Dr. Siddiqui had told him that she had picked up the gun
because she wanted to scare people in order to ease her escape. However, on
cross-examination, Agent Kammerman admitted that his original handwritten
notes about the conversation did not mention anything about a gun, but only
Dr. Siddiqui's desire to escape, and that the reference to the gun was added
only in the final typed report. The prosecution completed its questioning
of another FBI agent who interviewed Dr. Siddiqui while in the hospital,
Angela Sercer, and the defense's cross examination of Agent Sercer will
begin on Monday. The trial proceedings may end as early as Monday
afternoon, with jury deliberations to begin immediately thereafter.
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the room when the alleged incident occurred. This directly contradicted the
medic's own testimony yesterday, in which she claimed to be in the room and
witnessed Aafia holding the M4 rifle. The prosecution is expected to rest
by tomorrow afternoon, and the defense will likely call their first witness.
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