Protesters demand freedom for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

Supporters mobilize outside court as Dr. Siddiqui’s trial begins. WW photos: John Catalinotto

Just before Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s trial was to begin the morning of Jan. 19, her supporters around the world demonstrated their firm belief in her innocence. In New York, both Pakistani immigrants and U.S. progressives gathered near the courthouse at 500 Pearl Street to stage a public protest and then attend her trial. Pre-trial motions and jury selection were held from Jan 11 through Jan 15.

The start of Dr. Siddiqui’s trial was declared “Free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui Day” across the U.S., Pakistan, Europe, Australia and Middle East. She is charged with the attempted murder of FBI agents in Afghanistan. According to the prosecutors and all U.S. officials, she has no links to any “terrorist organizations.”

Dr. Siddiqui is considered to be a “daughter of the nation” in Pakistan. The Pakistani Supreme Court recently called her case “the most important challenge for the country.” The Pakistani Parliament passed an overwhelming resolution supporting her and has forced the government to pay for her legal defense in U.S. courts.

Dr. Siddiqui is a 37-year-old Pakistani woman educated in neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her supporters say she was illegally kidnapped with her three young children in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2003 and taken to U.S. custody in Afghanistan, where she was held in secret detention and tortured for five years. In 2007 a briefing paper on U.S. responsibility for “enforced disappearances” or rendition, authored by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and four other similar groups, named her as a missing person.

In July 2008, Dr. Siddiqui was arrested in Ghazni, Afghanistan. At the time she was shot and severely wounded during an interrogation by FBI agents. The FBI says she grabbed an unsecured M-4 rifle from a U.S. soldier and started firing at the soldiers and FBI agents. Her supporters and attorneys say there is no forensic evidence linking her to the weapon, and the only thing for sure about that day was that Siddiqui was shot.

Dr. Siddiqui’s torture and secret detention by U.S. forces in Afghanistan aroused enormous anger and indignation, especially in Central and Western Asia. Her continued imprisonment in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and the continuing strip searches to which she is subjected are internationally condemned.

The Pakistan-U.S. Freedom Forum organized the New York protest supporting Dr. Siddiqui, which was supported by other organizations including the International Action Center, World Can’t Wait and the May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights.