TO ALL THOSE WHO CELEBRATED THE INDEPENDENCE DAY.......PLEASE READ THIS PASSAGE THAT I CHOOSE FROM ARREST OF DR. AFIA SIDDIQUE.........DOES NOT SHE DESERVE INDEPENDENCE......... ABDUCTED....TORTURED AND RAPE.... THIS IS OUR SISTER, DAUGHTER AND MOTHER...... MY MESSAGE IS NOT TO INITIATE ANY VOILENCE OR HATRED TOWARDS ANY ONE..... CHRISTIAN, JEWS, AND EVEN A.ATHIEST....EVEN THOUGH WE ARE NOT STANDING TOGETHER BUT IT IS OUR DUTY TO LET OTHER AWARE.... WE WANT PEACE... WE WAT FREEDOM. WE WANT TO ESTABLISH BROTHERHOOD THAT CAME IN FORCE 1400 YEARS AGO. THIS MESSAGE IS AWARENESS AND ALERT FROM ALL CORRUPT LEADERS....DONT TRUST THEM. THEY TOOK OUR FREEDOM AND NOW THEY START TAKING OUR IDENTITY AND DIGNITY. In the morning before the closing remarks, the last government witness, FBI Special Agent, Angela Sercer testified. Sercer monitored Aafia for 12 hours a day over a two week period while she was at a hospital in Bagram. She tried to rebut Aafia Siddiqui’s testimony, by saying that Aafia told her she was in “hiding” for the last five years and further that she “married” someone to change her name. However under cross examination, Sercer admitted that while at the hospital Aafia expressed fear of “being tortured”. Sercer also admitted that Aafia expressed concern about the “welfare of the boy” and asked about him “every day”. Moreover, that Aafia only agreed to talk to her upon promises that the boy would be safe. According to the testimony Aafia said that the Afghans had “beaten her”; that her “husband had beaten her and her children”; and that she was “afraid of coming into physical harm”. When Sercer was further questioned about what Aafia said about her children during that two week period, she admitted that Aafia expressed concern about the “safety and welfare of her children”, but felt that the “kids had been killed or tortured in a secret prison”. “She said that they were dead, didn’t she” asked Defence attorney, Elaine Sharpe; reluctantly Sercer answered, “Yes.” The trial took an unusual turn with an FBI official asserting that the finger prints taken from the rifle, which was purportedly used by Aafia to shoot at the U.S. interrogators, did not match hers. Another event complicated the case further, when the testimony of witness Masood Haider Gul appeared different from the one given by U.S. Captain Schnieder earlier. The defence denied all charges, stating that the soldiers had given different versions of where she was when the M-4 was allegedly fired and how many shots were fired. The trial lasted for 2 weeks and the jury deliberated for 2 days before reaching a verdict. On February 3, 2010, she was convicted and found guilty on all counts. , despite the following discrepancies: · The court proceedings were flawed, and limited to the incident in Ghazni, which itself lacked concrete evidence. · It is still unexplained how a frail, 110 pound woman, confronted with three US army officers, two interpreters and two FBI agents managed to assault three of them, snatch a rifle from one of them, open fire at close range, hit no one, but she herself was wounded. · There were no fingerprints on the gun. · There was no gunshot residue from the gun. · There were no bullet holes in the walls from that particular gun. · There were no bullets cases or shells in the area from the specified gun. · The testimony of the government’s six eyewitnesses contradicted each other. · The statements Aafia made to FBI agent Angela Sercer were made whilst she was under 24 hour surveillance by FBI agents in the hospital at Bagram, with her arms and legs tied to a bed for weeks, several types of meidcation, sleep-deprived and at the mercy of the agent for food, water and in order to relieve herself. Sercer did not identify herself to Aafia as a FBI agent. The use of these statements in court were objected to by the defence on the basis of ‘Miranda laws’ which mandate that a detainee must be informed of their rights, have access to an attorney, or in the case of international law, consular staff and law enforcement officials must identify themselves. Despite this the judge denied the motion and allowed this to form part of the questioning. · Aafia’s disappearance, torture and missing children were not at all addressed during the court case. POST CONVICTIONFollowing her conviction, Aafia remained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in New York where she has spent the best part of her detention in the US. Throughout that time, she has been subject to humilitating and degrading strip and cavity searches, prompting her to refuse legal visits on many occasions. Since the beginning of March Aafia has been refused all contact with her family and has not been permitted any letters, phonecalls, visits or reading material under the pretext of “the security of the nation.” In April 2010, a 12 year old girl was left outside the resident of Fowzia Siddiqui in Karachi by unidentified men claiming she was the missing daughter of Aafia Siddiqui. Although initially it was thought that she was not Aafias daughter, following DNA tests conducted by the Pakistani government, the Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirmed that the tests proved that the child was indeed Aafias daughter, Maryam, and that her DNA matched that of Ahmed Siddiqui (Aafias eldest son) and their father, Amjad Khan. Dr Fowzia intended to carry out their own independent investigation to confirm the girls identity. In a press conference Senate Committee for Interior Chairman, Senator Talha Mehmood reported that Maryam Siddiqui was recovered from Bagram airbase in the custody of an American - in the Urdu-language press, an American soldier - called John. He also said that she had been kept for seven years in a cold, dark room in Bagram airbase. After several postponements, Aafia was finally sentenced to 86 years in prison, on 5 counts, on September 23rd 2010, making her eligible for release in 2094. She would be 122 years old at the time of her release, if she remains alive at that time. The whereabouts and welfare of Aafia’s youngest son, Suleman remains a mystery.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 03:50:47 +0000
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