- “Aafia was weaker than last time,” says Dr. Fauzia.
- He was visiting his sister Aafia Siddiqui in the US jail.
- He says Aafia was taken away after their three-hour meeting.
KARACHI: Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, elder sister of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani doctor imprisoned in a US jail, said Pakistan's past and present governments are “totally complicit” in her sister's years-long imprisonment.
The doctor's statement came during a conversation with journalists at the Karachi airport after returning from the United States, where she visited her imprisoned sister.
Dr. Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, was charged by a federal district court in New York in September 2008 with attempted murder and assault, stemming from an incident during an interview with US authorities in Ghazni, Afghanistan, charges she denied.
After 18 months in detention, she was tried and found guilty in early 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison. She has since been imprisoned in the United States.
“Aafia was weaker than last time. She talked about being hit on the head,” said Dr. Fauzia, adding that her sister was also given a Bible and asked to read it.
During their meeting in jail, the doctor detailed that both sisters were screaming for three hours, since there was a glass barrier between them.
“Last time they lost the keys and this time the phone didn't work,” said Dr. Fauzia, adding that after the meeting ended they took her sister away.
Commenting further on Dr Aafia's case, Dr Fauzia said his lawyer Clive Stafford Smith had traveled to Afghanistan to investigate the case.
“The family that was holding Aafia was also found,” he revealed.
Last week, Aafia's attorney, Clive Stafford Smith, told Geo News that his client continues to be continually sexually harassed in a Fort Worth, Texas, jail, adding that a security guard raped her two weeks ago as punishment.
“Dr. Aafia's sexual abuse has not stopped so far,” he revealed after meeting her.
“She is constantly being subjected to physical harassment,” he repeated.
The lawyer said he spoke to Dr Aafia on the phone through a glass wall when he met her on Thursday and Friday. He added that the phone was not working properly, so they had to shout to get through. He complained to the prison authorities and two days later they provided him with another phone.
