Protest – NYC Court Hearing for Aafia Siddiqui

The hearing on 23rd September is at the United States District Court (U.S.D.C.) for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y), located at 500 Pearl Street, Manhattan.

The hearing will start at 2pm in the courtroom of United States District Judge Richard Berman (21D).

BACKGROUND

Dr Buy Levaquin Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed Aafia Siddiqui, the American educated Pakistani scientist and mother of three was detained for years by the US in Bagram. She has been the victim of the US programme of secret detention for five years since having been kidnapped in Karachi by Pakistan security services in 2003 along with her three children.

On Monday 4th August 2008, federal prosecutors in the US confirmed that Aafia Siddiqui was extradited to the US from Afghanistan where they allege she had been detained since mid-July 2008. The US administration claims that she was arrested by Afghani forces outside Ghazni governor’s compound with manuals on explosives and ‘dangerous substances in sealed jars’ on her person. They further allege that whilst in custody she shot at US officers and was injured in the process.

According to her lawyer, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, “We do know she was at Bagram for a long time. It was a long time. According to my client she was there for years and she was held in American custody; her treatment was horrendous.”

Aafia’s claim is contrary to the heavily contested position of the US administration that she was detained in July by Afghan forces while attempting to bomb the compound of the governor of Ghazni. The US has previously denied the presence of female detainees in Bagram and that Aafia was ever held there, bar for medical treatment in July 2008.

Aafia Siddiqui now faces trial in the US in circumstances that can only be described as strange at best. Questions remain as to her own whereabouts over the last five years and still that of her children.

Her medical condition is currently extremely poor as she suffers from gun shot wounds, and part of her intestine has been removed. Her condition is not made any easier by the flights of stairs she is forced to climb by herself in her condition during visits and the strip and cavity searches that she is forced to endure.

Cageprisoners suggests that concerned inviduals who cannot attend organise their own local protests in solidarity.