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Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s denies shooting US officials
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist under U.S. detention, appeared on July 6, 2009, in the New York court of U.S. District Judge Richard Berman who had ordered prosecution to bring her in court against her wishes.
Dr Aafia, 37, is in US custody facing charges of an alleged attempt to shoot American personnel in Afghanistan. She was brought to New York in August last year by US agents from Afghanistan after her sudden appearance at the US military prison at Bagram, Afghanistan. She was apparently abducted, along with her three children, by Pakistani intelligence agencies in March 2003 and till July 2008 there was no news about her whereabouts.
Dr. Aafia has appeared in court twice after she was brought to the US but has refused to attend proceedings since then because she does not want to be strip searched. She has repeatedly stated she was dead after one strip search and that she was convinced video of the search was distributed on the Internet. According to her lawyer, Dawn Cardi, Judge Richard Berman had given permission to the prosecutors to bring her to court against her will.
July 6, five-hour hearing was held after a court-ordered evaluation found her unfit for trial as a result of mental illness and the Judge ordered further evaluations.
A previous court-ordered mental health examination declared Dr. Aafia mentally unfit for trial, and she was then sent to a federal medical center in Carswell, Texas to be further evaluated. According to the ABC News, during a confidential forensic exam there, mental health professionals concluded, "Dr. Aafia is not currently competent to proceed as a result of her mental disease, which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense."
The Associated Press quoted her as saying: "I did not shoot anybody. I didn't fire any bullets." She was refuting a government charge that she picked up a US soldier’s gun, took off the safety, surprised everyone in a room, and pointed the rifle at three U.S. personnel while she was detained by Afghan police in Ghazni.
The U.S. government claims that Dr. Aafia did all this while no U.S. soldier was watching – until the time she was allegedly pointing the rifle. No U.S. personnel were injured. However, Dr. Aafia, herself, was shot in the abdomen by a warrant officer. She survived surgery in Bagram by U.S. personnel. The affidavit filed in the U.S. district court was that of a person who heard comments of the alleged events surrounding Dr. Aafia. No one who was physically present at this alleged shooting by Dr. Aafia has filed any sworn statement against her as to what actually happened in Ghazni.
According to the AP, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui repeatedly spoke Monday (7/6) to spectators. "I want to make peace with the United States of America," Dr. Afia said to the backs of those at the prosecution table. "I'm not an enemy. I never was." Dr. Aafia told spectators: "The American president wants to make peace. I want to help him. Am I making sense? I'm sincere."
The agency also reported that throughout Monday's hearing, Dr. Afia rubbed her wrists, reddened by what she said was rough treatment by jailhouse guards who forced her to court in observance of the judge's order that she appear.
The ABC News pointed out that: “There have been allegations that Dr. Aafia has been mistreated while in custody. Some human rights groups have alleged that she was detained for years overseas in various secret sites for high-value detainees. There has not been any official response from any entity regarding Dr. Aafia’s detention or possible mistreatment while in custody.”
The AP said two mental health experts for the government, Gregory B. Saathoff and Sally C. Johnson, testified she's fit for trial because her behavior reflects malingering or grossly exaggerated psychological symptoms aimed at getting a result, such as avoiding trial. When Johnson testified that Dr. Aafia had said the judge is a pawn of a Zionist conspiracy and only wants to kill her, Dr. Aafia turned toward spectators and nodded her head enthusiastically in apparent agreement.
According to Reuters Dr. Aafia begged to activists to hear her message. "Please take me seriously, I am not psychotic," she said, interrupting a doctor's testimony. "God willing I can fix the mess in Afghanistan and Pakistan," she said, before talking about various topics including being silenced, bruises from strip searches, being tortured "as part of their game" and helping U.S. President Barack Obama make peace.
Kucharski, the AP reported, testified that her prospects might be worse if she were found incompetent because it could trigger a court order of forced medication to treat symptoms so that she could become competent for trial. And, if her symptoms are not treatable, she could remain institutionalized for life, he said.
The AP said before she left court, Dr. Aafia insisted she's not paranoid or psychotic and described her fears that her statements Monday might be her last. "It's probably the last opportunity I'm going to get," she said, noting the possibility she will be subjected to forced medication. "I've seen people on the drugs. They can't talk."
The AP also reported that at least twice during the hearing she indicated she will not cooperate with her court-appointed lawyer, Dawn M. Cardi who said outside court that her client's behavior supported her argument that she's unfit for trial. "She's not making any sense," Cardi said. The lawyer noted that Siddiqui had shouted to spectators that she could bring peace to Pakistan and Afghanistan if she were permitted to speak with President Barack Obama. It was an example of grandiose behavior that supports conclusions that she is delusional, Cardi said.
According to ABC, before the hearing ended, Dr. Aafia addressed the prosecutors directly, telling them, "Your President wants to make peace, but you guys are not acting on it." Dr. Aafia also addressed onlookers in the courtroom, declaring that she was "never against America."
The judge will decide on July 20th if Dr. Aafia was fit to stand trial. A trial is set for Oct 19. If convicted of the charges, she would face a minimum of 30 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Attorney Charlie Swift
According to Attorney Charlie Swift, defense attorney of Salim Hamadan, driver of Osama Bin Laden, there are many things common between Hamadan, and Aafia’s case. It may be recalled that Attorney Charlie Swift and Attorney Neil Katyal filed a petition for habeas corpus in the US Supreme Court to challenge Hamadan’s confinement in the Guantánamo Bay military prison.
In June 2006, the Court issued a 5-3 decision holding that that the federal government did not have the authority to establish special military commissions. The court verdict forced the Bush administration to ask the congress in October 2008 to hastily pass the Military Commissions Act.
In August 2008, Salim, once the Bush administration’s poster boy for the war on terror, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years of imprisonment by a military jury, being counted as having already served five years of the sentence at the time. In November 2008 US government transferred Hamadan to Yemen to serve out the remainder of his sentence by the military judge. He was released January 8, 2009 to live with his family in Sana.
Attorney Swift related the intensive legal efforts to convince the Supreme Court in Hamadan’s case and said that similarly exhaustive legal efforts are required in Dr. Aafia’s case.
There should be forensic enquiry of the crime scene, he said adding: “There should be an in depth probe in central Afghanistan where she was said to be captured.” According to the charge sheet Dr Siddiqui was loitering outside the compound of Ghazni Governor in Afghanistan on July 17, 2008 when she was taken into custody and had in her possession numerous documents on making explosives, chemical weapons and other weapons involving biological material and neurological agents.
The attorney said that there should be a dedicated effort to uncover the truth, including interviews with Moazzam Beg who saw Afia in Bargam prison and Ammar Ali Balochi to whom Aafia allegedly married as claimed by the US officials. Afia has denied marrying Balochi who is presently under detention at Guantanamo.
Attorny Swift said that the government story about the circumstances of her capture were unbelievable. How a fragile woman can take a gun from the American officials and try to shoot them, he asked? According to the charge sheet, while under detention at the Bagram airbase cell she shot at American officials after getting hold of a rifle of one of them.
Dr. Afia’s family has now officially partnered with MLFA to secure funding and prepare for an effective legal defense. The MLFA raises funds for the legal defense of Muslim individuals and organizations. It has processed over 400 cases ranging from profiling to charity indictments.
Since Muslim charitable organizations are under scrutiny since 9/11, Attorny Swift, issued a written statement saying that donations made to support Dr. Aafia’s legal defense pose no risk to the donor.
Briefly, here are some of the basic circumstances of Aafia’s case from
the Muslim Legal Fund of America which is raising funds for her legal defense:
- In March 2003, Aafia and her three children, Ahmad (boy), six years old and an American citizen, Mariam (girl), four years old and also an American citizen, and Suleman (boy), six months old, kidnapped by unknown authorities in Karachi, Pakistan, while on their way to visit an uncle in Islamabad, Pakistan.
- Around that same time, now-former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft stated that Aafia and her husband, Amjad Khan, at that time were wanted as persons of interest (all the FBI wanted was to ask some questions). There was no statement or allegation about “terrorist” involvement; nor was there any reward money offered for information.
- Aafia’s ex-husband went into hiding with his family and it has been known that he went to the U.S. authorities and spoke with U.S. representatives. Shortly thereafter, his name was taken off the person-of-interest list.
- On March 31, 2003 it was reported by the Pakistani media that 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 Aafia from purported representatives of the Pakistani intelligence services that the family members should be quiet if they want to see Aafia returned alive. That is why the family did not formally report Aafia or the three children as missing to the Pakistani authorities. We are not sure why her husband did not report Aafia or his children missing. Prior to Aafia’s disappearance, it is believed that her husband filed papers of divorce in Karachi, Pakistan. However, even though Aafia had been given custody of the children, her husband and in-laws were still harassing her. This was the reason Aafia wanted to visit relatives in another city.
- By the year 2008, we believed that after five years of being disappeared Aafia and her three children were most likely dead.
- Then, in July of 2008, the same month Aafia was found in Ghazni, two events occurred: (1) 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”; and (2) the Pakistani-based, human-rights lawyer, Syed Jafree, filed a petition for habeas corpus with the Pakistan High Court in Islamabad requesting that the court order the Pakistani government under then-President Pervez Musharraf to free Aafia – or to even admit that they where then detaining her.
- Two of Aafia’s children, Mariam, a girl who would now be about nine years of age, and Suleman, a boy who would now be about six years old, remain missing; this nightmare situation continues to haunt Aafia. It should be noted that Mariam is a citizen of the United States of America.
This is what the family and many other supporters in the US and in Pakistan believe:
- That 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 and/or possibly her in-laws and ex-husband.
- That once it was determined that Aafia did not have any information of value, she was used by those who were incarcerating her for other unknown purposes;
- That once is was determined that Aafia did not have any information of value, those who were incarcerating her were unwilling to release her for fear of high-profile embarrassment, or that they just neglected the fact that she did not have anything of value and failed to communicate this fact to authorities who continued to hold Aafia.
- 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 showing that Aafia was married to Khalid Sheikh Mohammad’s nephew, witnesses by his wife are false documents
- That documents (allegedly in another case) showing she opened a P.O. Box for some people who were targets of a govt. authorities. These are based on an eyewitness of a U.S. postal clerk and a questionable fingerprint on the application card.
- That reports that she was in Monrovia to buy diamonds for terror financing are false. Attorneys for Aafia have shown she was in Boston at the time of the “eyewitness” sighting by a taxi driver.
- That Aafia and her son were made to look like suicide bombers (without their knowledge) in Ghazni, Afghanistan; they were given bags to carry and were told they were being watched and were given instruction to stay at a particular place.
- That the Afghan police were looking for Aafia and her son based on a description given by an “anonymous” tip on the day she was detained in Ghazni.
- That had Aafia and her son been shot on sight in the act” of being suicide bombers, this would have led to a convenient closure of the case of Aafia Siddiqui at a time when a petition for habeas corpus was pending in the High Court of Pakistan in Islamabad. Please note that this court had been asked to order then-President Musharraf and the Pakistani government (which would include anyone working with them) to release her or to reveal her whereabouts.
- That Aafia unknowingly foiled the shoot-on-sight, public-execution plan when she attempted to enter a mosque for prayers where men only usually attend, instead of following the instructions given to her to stand at a certain designated location.
- That 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.
Muslim Legal Fund of America story on internet pointed out:
“The U.S. government wants us to believe that Aafia, a respectable Pakistani woman in all ways, is now the first and only female terrorist from Pakistan, was voluntarily hiding under cover with three children acting as a terror field operative while at the same time leaving her family to believe for five years that she and her three children were dead.
”We are asked to believe that Aafia arranged this just after her father died, after finding out her marriage was disintegrating, and after leaving her widowed mother alone in Pakistan. It is absolutely not plausible and does not even fit the traditional profile by law enforcement of female or male terrorists from that part of the world.
”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.”
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Editor -in-Chief of the Journal of America.
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