Dr Aafia Siddiqui – The Prisoner 650

NEW YORK (APP): A medical specialist, detailed by Aafia Siddiqui’s defence lawyer, Dawn Cardi, will appear before a U.S. judge on Wednesday to place before him her findings about the state of health of the Pakistani neuroscientist, who faces terrorism charges, according to informed sources. Dr. Camille Kempke will submit her written deposition behind closed doors to Judge Richard Berman in the presence of the prosecutors. A specialist, appointed by the prosection, Dr. L. Powers, made her deposition to the judge on June 26.

Ms. Siddiqui, who is charged with an alleged attempt to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan, was sent back to New York on July 17 from a medical facility in Texas where she underwent a complete psychological evaluation.

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NEW YORK: Pakistani neurosurgeon Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has been shifted from detention center of Texas to New York amid strict security.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is facing alleged charges of launching attack on allied forces in Afghanistan and FBI agents.

The court would take decision either she would be able to participate in proceeding or not on July 06, Private TV Channel reported.

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- Moazzam Begg is Director for the British organisation, Cageprisoners. The opinions expressed are his own.

Little seems to have changed regarding the treatment of prisoners held at the U.S. military-run Bagram prison since I was there (2002-2004). The recent study conducted by the BBC shows allegations of sleep deprivation, stress positions, beatings, degrading treatment, religious and racial abuse have gone unabated. On a personal level though, I can’t help wonder if British intelligence services are still involved.

In April this year, a report issued by Cageprisoners entitled Fabricating Terrorism II highlighted through eyewitness testimony the cases of 29 people, all of them either British residents or citizens, who had allegedly been tortured and abused in the presence of British intelligence agents or at their behest.

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NEW YORK: Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist charged with alleged attempt to attack American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan, has been shifted to New York from a medical facility in Texas where she underwent a complete psychological evaluation.

Ms. Siddiqui, 37, was sent to Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, on the orders of Judge Richard Berman after her defence lawyers pleaded that she was unfit to stand trial as a result of the trauma she suffered after her arrest in Afghanistan in late July last year.

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NEW YORK: Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national indicted in the US on terrorism charges, last August is unable to account for five years of her life and this may have an adverse affect on Islamabad’s efforts to get her released, according to experts here.

Ms Siddiqui, a neuroscientist and an alumna of MIT and Barandeis universities, is scheduled to appear before a US court in New York on Friday.

Last November defense lawyers claimed that Siddiqui who was undergoing court ordered Psychiatric tests was unfit to stand trial.

The psychiatric examination was conducted at a medical centre in Fort Worth Texas.

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NEW YORK – Prosecutors and defence lawyers for Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist charged with trying to kill American soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan, will meet in a conference on Friday (today) ahead of her trial in federal court here next week.

Friday’s conference is aimed at determining Siddiqui’s competency to stand the trial.The trial has been tentatively scheduled by Judge Richard Berman for July 6.An earlier court-ordered psychological evaluation had concluded that Ms Siddiqui, 37, was unfit for trial as a result of a mental disease, “which
renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defence,” a court document shows.

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Abdus Sattar Ghazali

American Muslim community has raised about $70,000 for Dr. Afia Siddiqui’s defense, at a fund raiser held by the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) which has established a special legal defense fund for Dr. Afia who is currently in detention at the Carswell Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. She is awaiting trial and awaiting a final conclusion on her competency to stand trial. Doctors feel she is suffering due to torture. Addressing a gathering of about 300 guests at the Muslim Community Center of Santa Clara, Dr. Agha Saeed, President of Pakistan American Democratic Forum, urged the government of Pakistan to release two million dollars it pledged for the legal defense of Dr. Afia who has become a symbol of Pakistan peoples struggle for Justice. He said that at least 1.7 million dollars are required for her defense.

Dr Agha Saeed urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take sumo motto action for the repatriation of Dr. Afia to Pakistan. Alluding to the recent meeting of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry with the US special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrook, he expressed concern that Holbrook is pressing the Chief Justice of Pakistan not to look into Dr. Afia’s case.

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PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Woman Wing Punjab has demanded the federal government take immediate and concrete steps to bring back Dr. Aafia immediately, as there is no excuse to delay the matter.

The PTI women leaders, including President Punjab Saloni Bokhari, Secretary General Punjab Shamsa Ali Advocate and Secretary Information Punjab Talat Naqvi, said the meeting of Pakistan Ambassador in USA Hussain Haqqani with Dr. Afia Siddiqi hadn’t brought forth any positive results.

They said this was a very small step forward, and hoped that the event was not just an eyewash or mere lip-service like it had been in the past.

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The FIA has approached America’s FBI to be permitted access to Dr Aafia Siddiqui, on the basis that she is a Pakistani citizen and that questioning her could help unravel some of the mysteries of terrorism in the country. Certainly, the case of Dr Siddiqui remains just as covered in mist as it was in 2008, when she was traced after a UK journalist claimed she had been held at Bagram Jail. There are still no clear answers as to how she got here, after being taken away from Karachi in 2003.

Her son, Ahmed, has described how he was blindfolded and chained by US officials while being shifted from one place to another. The boy, not yet a teenager at the time, also says he attended school for barely a month through these years.

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LAHORE: A US-based Muslim organisation has collected $70,000 to pursue Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s case, a private TV channel reported.

According to the channel, the Muslim Legal Fund of America organised a fund-raiser to collect money for the Pakistani neuroscientist accused of terrorism. Around 300 people attended the event. Addressing the audience, Pakistan American Democratic Forum President

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