February 3, 2010, New York, NY – The International Justice Network (IJNetwork) represents the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the United States. Attorneys from IJNetwork have been monitoring her trial, which began on January 19, and ended with a guilty verdict today in U.S. Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.
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February 1, 2010, New York, NY – International Justice Network
attorneys have been monitoring the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, which
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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Thursday marked a turning point in the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, who
decided to take the witness stand in her own defense. She declared under
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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On Friday, an Afghan police officer, Mr. Bashir, testified that he saw an
American officer walk behind the curtain just before he heard gun shots, and
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 prosecution's case further unraveled today when US Army Sergeant Lamont
Williams testified that the female army medic who treated Aafia wasn't in
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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