December 13, 2023

The report below is excerpted from Pakistan Aaj TV, followed by excerpts from The News.

Incarcerated Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui met with her sister Dr. Fowzia for the second time in two years at a prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday.

In one of her earlier videos, Dr. Fowzia claimed that she could not meet her sister on Sunday as the jail staff had “misplaced” the prison key.

But on Monday, she added that the room where she met with her sister was better cleaned as compared to the last time; however, they were separated by a window.

Jail authorities did not allow her to have social interaction with her sister, Dr. Fowzia said and added that the FMC Carswell needed to be “shut down or a whole overhaul. It’s inhuman, cruel and ruthless.”

“We were in separate rooms. The size of the table was less than before, and I felt she was in worse condition than before,” she said as she started crying.

“We were just crying during the meeting. We cried for almost half an hour.”

Aafia’s lawyer Clive Stafford Smith also wrote on X about the development.

“The Siddiqui sisters met today; FMC Carswell finally worked out how to open the door to the cell. But they would not let sisters hug or even touch. For much of their four-hour visit, Aafia was weeping at the suffering she is enduring,” he said.

Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years of imprisonment by a U.S. federal court in 2010 after being convicted of firing at U.S. troops in Afghanistan while in their custody and six other charges against her.

Earlier this year, Dr. Fowzia and Smith claimed that Pakistan’s government did not do enough to bring Dr. Aafia back to Pakistan.

From The News

Islamabad: Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith [Dec. 5] said Dr. Aafia Siddiqui — a Pakistani neuroscientist jailed in the United States for over a decade — has been sexually assaulted at least twice during her incarceration, in addition to the ill-treatment she was meted out at the Bagram jail in Afghanistan.

Speaking with Geo News, Smith, who represents Dr. Aafia, said his client has been abused and tortured more often and that she informed him about the sexual assaults in a meeting. The counsel also mentioned that the Pakistani government was also aware of the two instances of sexual assault.

Smith’s comment pointed towards a report prepared by Aisha Farooqui, Pakistan’s former consul general in Houston, in 2018, citing the physical and sexual abuse that Dr. Aafia was subjected to during her detention. The report also recommended diplomatic authorities take her case to the highest level and find a way to repatriate Dr. Aafia.

Smith revealed that a sexual assault complaint was, therefore, filed on her behalf. “Dr. Aafia was also sexually assaulted in Bagram jail,” he added. He further shared the details about the reason behind the assaults endured by his client at the United States-run prison in Afghanistan when the American military was based in the country and operating its bases on Afghan soil.

The excerpts have been slightly edited.