Repatriation in hands of Pak Govt.
July 23, 2010
DAWN
KARACHI, July 23: Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, whose younger sister Dr Aafia Siddiqui is in prison in the United States, made an impassioned appeal on Friday to the people to raise their voice for her repatriation before Aug 16, when she said the US court would seal her fate.
Dr Fauzia, who was the guest speaker at ‘Meet the press’ programme of the Karachi Press Club on Friday, stressed the urgency of repatriation saying that under the US law a foreigner tried by a US court could be repatriated to the country of his nationality on the request of the government before the pronouncement of a sentence.
She said there were 19 such precedents in which undertrial prisoners after indictment were repatriated to their countries on the request of their respective governments.
She added that Dr Aafia was convicted despite all physical and forensic evidence showed that she could not have committed the acts she was charged with. Besides, she was not represented by lawyers of her choice, she said.
Dr Fauzia said that if there was a political will, the Pakistan government through its diplomatic channel could ask for the repatriation of her sister, who is neither a US citizen nor a green card holder as she had only one passport, issued by the Pakistan government.
Recounting the miseries and torture Dr Aafia Siddiqui suffered during her incarceration and trial, Dr Fauzia broke down a number of times.
She said as Dr Aafia was indicted…despite conceding that her links with Al-Qaeda, Taliban or any other such organisation were not found. She said that, according to the judge, after her long incarceration Dr Aafia had become a threat to society.
Saying that Dr Aafia, a US-trained neuroscientist, was devoted to her three children and her academic studies revolved around how children learned. She was now a mere shell of her former self.
Her repatriation was being sought so that she could pick up some fragments of life with her family, she said.
Ms Fauzia said in March 2003 Dr Aafia and her three children — Ahmad, six, and Maryum, four, both US citizens by birth, and six-month-old Suleman — were kidnapped in Karachi and on March 31, 2003 the Pakistan media reported that Dr Aafia had been arrested and turned over to US officials. In July 2008, Dr Aafia appeared in Ghazni. British citizen Yvonne Ridley, a former detainee at the Bagram prison, spoke of a “Grey lady” screaming at Bagram.
Dr Aafia’s son Ahmed was reunited with her aunt in late 2008 while daughter Maryum was dropped near her aunt’s home in Karachi in April 2010 after she had been missing for seven years. Dr Aafia’s youngest child, Suleman, who would now be about seven years old, remains missing and is feared dead.
She also clarified that her family was not affiliated with any political party and thanked the media for its support to her lone voice raised for Dr Aafia.
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