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Monthly Archives: February 2012
Plea to aid sister jailed in US for 86 years
We meet at the Dlamini mosque in Soweto, an unlikely first stop for neurologist Dr Fowzia Siddiqui’s international tour to raise awareness about the plight of her US-imprisoned sister, Aafia Siddiqui.
Today marks 3 251 days since Aafia, an American-educated Pakistani woman, was incarcerated for assault with intent to murder her US interrogators while she was being detained in Afghanistan.
She is serving an 86-year sentence in solitary confinement in the US, and is believed to have cancer.
Fowzia’s left arm is in a cast, broken last week in Pakistan when she says the vehicle she was travelling in was attacked by policemen with batons. She was on her way to a march at the US embassy with tens of thousands of people.
Audio Interview of Dr Fowzia Siddiqui at South Africa FM
Audio Interview of Dr Fowzia Siddiqui at South Africa FM
South Africans throng to free Aafia Siddiqui Programmes
Johannesburg: We should raise our voices against injustice. We should stand up against injustice. This is Islam, encouraged Altaf Shakoor, the president of Pakistani human rights group Pasban, at a public meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday night.
He is accompanying Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui on their first international tour to raise awareness about the plight of her US imprisoned sister, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
Shakoor lambasted the Pakistani regime of former Pakistani leader, Perves Musharraf. “This Muslim general, with the largest army in the world, 600 000 soldiers, a nuclear power. Our general sold hundreds of Muslim sisters, daughters and brothers to America for dollars and to extend his power.”
Aafia Siddiqui’s message reaches the SA community
The story of US imprisoned Pakistani doctor, Aafia Siddiqui, is reaching the ears and hearts of the broader South African population.
Her sister, Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui and human rights activist, Altaf Shakoor, are currently on a tour of the country to create awareness about the plight of Aafia who languishes in the Carswell Detention Centre in Texas, USA.
Dr. Fowzia has been the guest of satellite radio broadcaster, Channel Islam International (Cii), and received a thunderous welcome from South African Muslims over the last five days.
The frame-up of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
In solidarity with Dr Aafia Siddiqui, supporters packed New York’s Federal Court in Manhattan Feb. 10 to hear an appeal of the 39-year-old who was sentenced on Sept 23, 2010.
She has been held in total isolation at Carswell Federal Prison since her sentencing 18 months ago.
In March 2003, Dr. Siddiqui was kidnapped with her three young children in Karachi, Pakistan, and held in secret detention by U.S. forces at Bagram Prison in Afghanistan for five years.
She was charged with attempting to shoot U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan in 2008. No one was injured except Dr. Siddiqui, who was shot in the stomach, and no material evidence was found that she handled a gun.
The frame-up of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
In solidarity with Dr Aafia Siddiqui, supporters packed New York’s Federal Court in Manhattan Feb. 10 to hear an appeal of the 39-year-old who was sentenced on Sept 23, 2010.
She has been held in total isolation at Carswell Federal Prison since her sentencing 18 months ago.
In March 2003, Dr. Siddiqui was kidnapped with her three young children in Karachi, Pakistan, and held in secret detention by U.S. forces at Bagram Prison in Afghanistan for five years.
She was charged with attempting to shoot U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan in 2008. No one was injured except Dr. Siddiqui, who was shot in the stomach, and no material evidence was found that she handled a gun.
Aafia Siddiqui’s Struggle for Justice
by Stephen Lendman
Previous articles discussed her 2003 abduction, detention, torture, false charges, prosecution, and conviction despite clear evidence she’s innocent.
Nonetheless, in September 2010, she was wrongly sentenced to 86 years in prison. Imprisoning her for hours, let alone years, constitutes gross injustice. Doing so compounded years of horrific treatment in US custody, including sadistic torture.
On February 10, lawyers appealed her case before the New York-based US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Attorney Dawn Cardi argued that Aafia’s treatment left her emotionally incapable of testifying on her own behalf, despite her client’s objections.
Drive for release of Dr Aafia
LAHORE : A NUMBER of religious, social and student organisations on Sunday announced to launch a campaign for release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. The All Parties Conference was organised by Islami Tehreek-e-Talaba (ITT) which also passed a number of resolutions through which it was demanded not to restore NATO supply, formation of a panel of doctors for treatment of Dr Aafia, befitting reply by military leadership to drone attacks and introduction of uniform education system.
Dr Fouzia Siddiqui, sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, ITT President Ghulam Abbas Siddiqui, Zaheer Uddin of JUI-S, Qari Sana Ullah of JUI-F, Saqib Warriach of PTI, Farooq Chohan of Jamaat-e-Islami and others were present.
Court hears appeal for Dr Aafia
NEW YORK: Lawyers for Dr Aafia Siddiqui, serving an 86-year prison sentence for shooting at US soldiers in Afghanistan, told an appeals court on Friday that she was so mentally ill, she should have been barred from testifying at her own trial.
Dr Aafia, once a bright young student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, was branded a fugitive terror suspect after she left the US in 2003 and married a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the master planner behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Her whereabouts were a mystery until she was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. A day later, she was wounded during a confrontation with US authorities who had gone to interrogate her.
