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Aafia’s family says it has nothing to do with funds campaign
Sister says she was out of town when banners seeking donations were put up.
Sister says she was out of town when banners seeking donations were put up. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Until a few weeks ago, banners asking for Rs1.5 million in donations for the legal defence of Aafia Siddiqui adorned several neighbourhoods in Karachi.
Aafia is serving an 86-year sentence in the US on charges of attempting to kill US officials in Afghanistan. She is also widely believed to have been supporting al Qaeda.
Those banners, according to Aafia’s sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, have been removed at her behest as Fauzia does not believe this is the “right way” to ask for money and the banners were put up while she was not in Pakistan.
“It is not appropriate to ask for alms and donations for daughters. It is a daughter’s right.”
Fauzia Siddiqui was cagey in her responses over how the fundraising and legal appeal would work.
“Once we know how much the lawyer(s) fee will be, we will arrange that people directly contribute to the lawyers’ fund. I do not want to be involved in the middle. I also don’t want people to allege that I collected money in my sister’s name,” she said.
Since Aafia’s current legal defence team is court-appointed, there appears to be no need of funds for her case.
While she already has court-appointed lawyers, Fauzia says Aafia and their family have no confidence in the legal team.
Fauzia Siddiqui wants to engage Tina Foster of the International Justice Network, who represents their family, as Aafia’s lawyer. “We already saw what kind of case they (court-appointed lawyers) fought, without any witnesses or forensic evidence,” she told The Express Tribune. “They are corporate lawyers, they’re not criminal lawyers. We need proper appellate lawyers to fight the case.”
Aafia’s court-appointed lawyer Dawn Cardi’s website states that she has over 30 years of experience with the criminal defence system. Her firm specialises in matrimonial and family law, criminal defence and select federal and New York State litigation. She could not be immediately reached for comment.
However, Fauzia said Foster is not a criminal lawyer either.
While Fauzia said she would be meeting with and finalising the legal team in the first week of October, she declined to say if she would be meeting them in the US.
After being sentenced, Aafia fired her lawyers and waived her right to an appeal. In a letter to the presiding judge in her case, she stated: “I waive all my rights to file an appeal against the unjust sentence given to me on September 23, 2010. Nobody has the right to appeal it on my behalf in any court of law in the world. I have made my appeal to God and it has been answered.”
Fauzia also said the family is also getting visitation rights to Aafia, though she claims that in the past, their brother has been turned away from the jail by officials who allegedly told him that “normal rules do not apply to your sister”. Aafia is currently incarcerated at the Carswell prison in Texas.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2011.
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Reader Comments (12)
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Very surprised that lawyers were used to defend Ms. Siddiqui in such an important case.Recommend
One has to be very careful when making any donations on behalf of a convicted person in the US. All donors can be regarded as the supporters of terrorists. I am not talking about her guilt or innocence but the fact remains that she is convicted by the US court.
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@PhlyingRPh:
If you mean court appointed lawyers then if the defendent cannot afford a lawyer or does not engage one then the courts appoint lawyers for this purpose. However these lawyesr usually are not paid and do this pro bono. I think its some sort of legal requirement there for lawyers to handle a set number of pro bono cases
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Can someone please ask Ms. Siddiqui (any sister?)
What are her (Aafia’s) relations with Ramzi Yousuf & Khalid Mohd. Sheikh?
Who is her second husband was/is?
What did he do/known for?Recommend
What so ever happens with the Afia was not good and we should think positively regarding it but one think is clicking in my mind whenever I think for the Afia that what she were doing in Afghanistan in 2002 as it was a critical time in the Afghanistan.
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Well she was not convicted of marrying or being related to a certain individual. If there were any grounds for that she would have been sentenced for marrying a “WRONG” person. Wonder if you belong to a police dept in Pakistan, because your thinking is very much in line with Pakistan Police ideology where they abduct suspect’s family members, and one can be tortured for being just part of family.
She was convicted of trying to escape and grabbing a gun at a detention center in Afghanistan. She was abducted in Karachi (not arrested), then appeared at a ghost detention center, I wonder how she ended up there. Criminals have been let go in US because ARRESTING officer did not follow procedures or did not read that person their rights. Resisting abduction is very natural. But generally these US laws do not apply to sub humans and are only reserved for US citizens.
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@Shahryar Ahmed: She has never been convicted regarding any terror case. If she had any contact with those people Ramzi Yousuf & Khalid Mohd. Sheikh? then why she was not convicted with those claims.
She has been punished with false claim of Ameican Army in Afghanistan that she grabbed a gun from the American army officer and fired on other personnels and missed aim they in returned shot her, but there is no physical evidence provided against her in the court of Law except An Afghan who gave evidence as a witness and got American Green Card as reward. That gun also have not been provided in the court with her finger prints and any other DNA test.
It was all false accuasation.
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@Ibrar Ahmed: My dear she was abducted in Karachi with her 3 children by the spy agencies and took her to Afghanistan. Remaining story was all made up by the powerful people in the world.
Even if she did something in Afghanistan then she should have allowed to appear in Afghan court not in American Court.
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My previous comment was directed towards Shahryar Ahmed
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@ Freeman
You surly know a lot about where and how Aafia got to Afghanistan and who lied in court against her and got green card. Don’t believe everything you are told. Sooner or later truth will come out and all those defending her will be embarrassed. It is not difficult to see that Fauzia (sister) is lying and withholding a lot of information from the Pakistani media and people. She grew in a rich household, went to best schools and is an American citizen.
Please think of the following:
Has any Pakistani ever told a truth to another Pakistani? Please don’t ask for honesty because we are Pakistanis. We lie so much to each other and to ourselves that we start believing our lies as truth. Or like someone said “we carve out true stories from mountain of lies”. You don’t believe what government tells you, what your police tells you, and not even what your neighbors tell you but you are ready to believe what Fauzia (sister) tells you. Wake up and smell reality.Recommend
@Honorliving: I don’t know what Aafia’s sister says. I do not live in Pakistan. I have been following through Aafia’s case when it was in court. I understand and know what happened. Only Pakistan does not lie. Every country lie for their own interest. I also know how America twist things to make it look like that they are the only in this world who speaks truth. Clear Example is Iraq and Afghan war. How much they made a noise about Iraq. They never found anything. Even America and Europe have been supporting Suddam 30 for years.
Now they have lost Afghan war. There is no doubt. Spent trillions of dollars. Now what they say to their own nation that we spent Trillions of American people Tax money and still lost. I think they thought instead blame Pakistan for all problems like they did BLAME on cambodia for all failure in Vietnam war. Still it will not give them any benefit.
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“…their brother has been turned away from the jail by officials who allegedly told him that “normal rules do not apply to your sister”.”
Not alleged. This is a fact. I was sitting next to Aafia’s brother in the car when the guard at the prison gate turned him away with those very words.
@ Shahryar Ahmed. Aafia was married only once, to the father of their three children. If she had remarried she would have told her mother and her mother would have told me.
@ Ibrar Ahmed. I can tell you exactly what Aafia was doing in Afghanistan. She was being held and tortured at Bagram prison. There are witnesses to this.
@ Honorliving. Aafia is not an American citizen. She has never been an American citizen. She is and always has been a citizen of Pakistan. She did not grow up in a wealthy family. She attended MIT because she had a scholarship.
And as far as her sister Fowzia is concerned, in the nearly two decades that I have known her she has never said anything that wasn’t the truth.
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