- In letter, PM Shehbaz cites worry that Dr Aafia may take her personal life.
- She’s spent roughly 16 years behind bars in US, says premier.
- Aafia’s lawyer phrases letter to Biden “very welcome, very heartfelt”.
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has written a letter to america President Joe Biden, searching for Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s launch as she continues to languish in an American jail for a number of years.
In his letter, written to Biden on October 13, the premier wrote about searching for the US president’s intervention within the matter that deserves to be considered with compassion, as Siddiqui stays incarcerated on the Federal Medical Middle (FMC) Carswell in Texas.
The FMC Carswell homes feminine inmates of all safety ranges, primarily with particular wants pertaining to their medical and psychological well being.
She has been serving an 86-year sentence there, with out the potential of parole, imposed by the Southern District Court docket of New York.
“Now 52 years outdated, she has spent roughly sixteen years behind bars within the US,” PM Shehbaz wrote within the letter.
Dr Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, was indicted by a New York federal district courtroom in September 2008 on fees of tried homicide and assault, stemming from an incident throughout an interview with the US authorities in Ghazni, Afghanistan — fees that she denied.
After 18 months in detention, she was tried and convicted in early 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in jail. She has since been imprisoned within the US.
The premier additional talked about that quite a few Pakistani officers have paid consular visits to Siddiqui on the jail facility through the years and have raised “critical considerations in regards to the therapy she has acquired”.
The therapy meted out to her has severely impacted her “already fragile psychological and frail bodily well being”.
“In actual fact, they even worry that she may take her personal life,” the prime minister talked about within the letter.
PM Shehbaz additional praised Biden for passionately combating for the rights of US residents, significantly these stranded or held captive overseas.
Subsequently, the premier added, it’s his “solemn responsibility” as Pakistan’s premier to intervene when it turns into completely vital to make sure a citizen’s well-being, significantly when the circumstances are as dire as they’re in her case.
“Maintaining these information in view, I request you, Mr President, to kindly train your constitutional authority and settle for Dr Siddiqui’s clemency petition and order her launch, strictly on humanitarian grounds,” he wrote urging the American president to pardon the neuroscientist.
The prime minister added that he trusts Biden to accord probably the most critical consideration that the request deserves.
“Her household, and thousands and thousands of my fellow residents be a part of me in searching for your blessings for a positive final result of this request,” the prime minister wrote, concluding the letter.
Reacting to Premier Shehbaz’s letter, Clive Stafford Smith — American human rights lawyer who represents Dr Siddiqui — instructed Geo.television that the letter is “very welcome and really heartfelt from the PM”.
“I’ve been pushing for one thing like this however it’s only step one,” he mentioned, including that he hopes to satisfy the Pakistani delegation in Washington by the center of November to make the rounds of the White Home and different politicians.
Concerning the timing of the letter — which stays essential as President Biden will quickly say goodbye to the White Home simply a few months after the presidential elections in November — Clive mentioned that it was one thing he had pressed for all alongside.
“The ten weeks between the election on November fifth and inauguration on January twentieth are the ten weeks when you may get one thing carried out within the US as Biden continues to be president, however he has nothing to lose,” he mentioned.
In June this 12 months, Smith instructed Geo Information that his consumer was being sexually harassed repeatedly at a jail in Fort Price, Texas, including {that a} safety guard raped her two weeks in the past as punishment.
“Sexual abuse of Dr Aafia has not stopped to this point. She is being constantly subjected to bodily harassment,” he had disclosed after assembly her on the jail facility this summer season.