Dr Aafia
Siddiqui
PRISONER 650
BREIF BACKGROUND…..
Dr. Aafia earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from MIT and earned her
doctorate from Brandeis University.
She was totally dedicated to her children and her academic studies revolved
around how children learn.
Unfortunately, Dr. Aafia became a victim of domestic violence during her
marriage.
In 2002, Dr. Aafia’s husband moved the family to Pakistan and soon divorced her
while she was pregnant with the couple’s third child. He remarried within weeks
of giving her the divorce.
Dr. Aafia is now 40 years old, a mother of three children (2 are US citizens),
divorced, and is a Pakistani citizen
CIRCUMSTANCES
SURROUNDING
THE CASE…
In March 2003, Dr. Aafia and her three children, Ahmad (boy), six
years old and an American citizen, Maryam (girl), four years old and
also an American citizen, and Suleman (boy), six months old,
kidnapped by unknown authorities in Karachi, Pakistan.
On March 31, 2003 it was reported by the Pakistani media that Dr.
Aafia had been arrested and turned over to representatives of the
United States. In early April, this was confirmed on NBC Nightly
News, among other media outlets.
There was communication to the mother of Dr. Aafia from purported
“agencies” that the family members should be quiet if they want to
see Aafia returned alive.
By the year 2008, many believed that after five years of being
disappeared Dr. Aafia and her three children were most likely dead.
Then, in July of 2008, the same month
Dr. Aafia “appeared” in Ghazni, two
events occurred:
British human-rights reporter, Yvonne
Ridley and former Bagram detainee
and British citizen, Moazem Begg,
publicly spoke about a woman in
Bagram screaming, a woman whom
they named the “Grey Lady of
Bagram”
A petition was filed
with the Pakistan High Court in
Islamabad requesting that the court
order the Pakistani government to free
Dr. Aafia or to even admit that they
were then detaining her.
WHAT HER FAMILY
BELIEVE….
That Dr. Aafia was (and is) an innocent
person who was abducted for money or
based on false allegations or false
conclusions derived from an unknown
source.
That, unfortunately, all evidence required
for her defense and establishing legal proof
of her detention would require full
cooperation by the U.S. and Pakistani
governments, and intelligence agencies, a
cooperation that seems impossible.
That documents incriminating Dr. Aafia are
either false documents or produced under
torture or threat of harm to her children.
That the Afghan police were looking for
Dr. Aafia and her son based on a
description given by an anonymous tip on
the day she was detained in Ghazni.
That Dr. Aafia, who spoke no local
language in Ghazni, was dressed so
conspicuously in a manner to be easily
identified and shot on sight as a
(falsely-accused) suicide bomber as a
part of someone else’s plan.
The forensic and scientific evidence
presented during the trial in New York
proved that Dr. Aafia could not have
committed the crimes for which she
was charged, still the jury disregarded
the evidence and chose to agree with
the prosecution due to fear and
prejudice.
In February, 2010, Dr. Aafia was tried and
convicted in a US Federal court on charges
of attempted murder and assaulting US
servicemen in Ghazni, Afghanistan. The
official charges against Dr. Aafia were that
she assaulted U.S. soldiers in Ghazni,
Afghanistan, with one of the servicemen’s
own rifles, while she was in their custody,
waiting to be interrogated by them. No US
personnel were hurt but Dr. Aafia was shot
and suffered serious injuries including brain
damage. Dr Aafia categorically denies these
charges.
• There were NO terrorism charges
against Dr. Aafia.
• According to several legal
observers, the trial of Dr. Aafia was
littered with many inconsistencies
and defects, chief among them
being many rulings by the judge
that strongly favored the
prosecution and prejudiced the case
against the defense. These ranged
from allowing much hearsay
evidence and jury instructions that
favored the prosecution. In addition,
Dr. Aafia was not represented by
lawyers of her choosing and faced
constant innuendos of terrorism
when she was not charged with any
such offense.
• As a result of Judge
Richard Berman’s
framing of the case in a
negative light, Dr Aafia
was convicted despite
ALL physical and
forensic evidence that
showed that she could
not have committed the
acts she was charged
with.
• Dr. Aafia remains
imprisoned, now at the
notorious Federal Medical
Center (FMC) in Carswell,
Fort Worth, Texas where she
is kept in the Special
housing unit (SHU) which is
the most severe confinement
category. She is still not
allowed communication
with anyone she trusts,
including family members.
Dr Aafia’s Children
What happened to them??
• Dr. Aafia’s oldest son, Ahmed, who is a U.S. citizen by
birth, was found in Ghazni, Afghanistan after thinking
he was an orphan and, in late 2008, was reunited with
Dr. Aafia’s sister in Karachi, Pakistan.
• Dr. Aafia’s daughter, Maryum, also a US citizen by
birth, was mysteriously “dropped off” in April 2010
near her aunt’s house in Karachi after being missing for
7 years. She was traumatized and spoke only American
accented English.
• Dr. Aafia’s youngest child, Suleman, a boy who would
now be about seven years old, remains missing; and is
feared dead
THE EVIDENCE…..
How the department of defence
general’s report supports the ‘claims’
made by Dr Aafia’s supporters
• CLAIM 1: The abduction of a mother and her
three children/ children used for extortion
• REPORT: The use of scenarios designed to
convince the detainee that death or severely
painful consequences are imminent for him
and/or his family:… - pg 36
• CLAIM 2: Long term captivity in secret prisons
• REPORT: CIA detainees in Abu Ghraib, known
locally as “Ghost Detainees,” were not accounted for
in the detention system. With these detainees
unidentified or unaccounted for, detention operations
at large were impacted because personnel at the
operations level were uncertain how to report or
classify detainees. - pg 59
• CLAIM 3: Rape, torture, mental and physical
abuse
• REPORT: At the extremes were the death of a
detainee in OGA custody, an alleged rape
committed by a US translator and observed by a
female Soldier, and the alleged sexual assault of
a female detainee. - pg 59
• CLAIM 4: Use of elaborate disorientation and false flag
techniques
• REPORT: False Flag: Convincing the detainee that
individuals from a country other than the United States
are interrogating him. - pg 97
• REPORT: …our interviews with DoD personnel
assigned to various detention facilities throughout
Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrated that they did not
have a uniform understanding of what rules governed the
involvement of OGAs in the interrogation of DoD
detainees. That DoD interrogators improperly
impersonated FBI agents and Department of State
officers during the interrogation of detainees. - pg 86
We ask people to look into this case themselves, and to
do so with an open mind. There is a lot of information
out there on the Internet, and in the media. Many of the
stories demonize Aafia, while some raise her to
sainthood. Aafia is neither demon nor saint. Aafia is
simply an ordinary mother, daughter and sister trapped
in an extraordinary nightmare