Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, elder sister of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani doctor imprisoned in the United States, expressed her condemnation towards both past and present governments of Pakistan, holding them “fully complicit” in her sister’s prolonged incarceration.
She made these remarks while speaking to journalists at Karachi airport upon her return from the US, where she visited her incarcerated sister.
Dr. Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, faced indictment by a New York federal district court in September 2008 on charges of attempted murder and assault, stemming from an incident during an interview with US authorities in Ghazni, Afghanistan—charges she vehemently denied.
Following 18 months of detention, she was tried, convicted in early 2010, and sentenced to 86 years in prison, where she has remained imprisoned in the US.
Dr. Fauzia revealed that during her visit, she found her sister physically weaker than before, mentioning that Dr. Aafia spoke about receiving electric shocks to the head and being coerced to read a Bible.
Describing their meeting at the jail, Dr. Fauzia mentioned that due to a glass barrier between them, they resorted to screaming for three hours. She recounted an incident where the keys were lost previously and mentioned that this time, the phone was not functioning correctly, leading to communication difficulties.
Regarding Dr. Aafia’s case, Dr. Fauzia disclosed that their lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, had conducted research in Afghanistan and had located the family that held Aafia captive.
Last week, Aafia’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, informed that his client continues to face continuous sexual harassment at a jail in Fort Worth, Texas, revealing that a security guard had raped her two weeks prior as punishment.
The lawyer emphasized that Dr. Aafia’s ordeal of sexual abuse has persisted, with her being consistently subjected to physical harassment. He recounted his struggle to communicate with her through a glass wall due to malfunctioning phones, leading to shouting to convey messages. He reported lodging complaints with jail authorities, resulting in the provision of a functioning phone after two days.
