Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is in US custody, has expressed hope in her first statement during her long incarceration that she will be released after new evidence comes out in her favour in the case against her.
Citing British broadcaster Sky News, the Contemporary Express reported that Dr Aafia Siddiqui told her this exclusively through her lawyer. “I hope I am not forgotten, I will be released one day soon,” she said.
Aafia said that I am the victim of injustice, every day is painful, it is not easy, adding that one day I will be free from this pain.
Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, called on outgoing US President Joe Biden to pardon her client and presented her with a 76,500-word dossier.
President Joe Biden has until Monday to consider the family’s request, after which Donald Trump will be sworn in, so far Biden has granted presidential pardons to 39 people and commuted the sentences of 3,989 people.
Aafia Siddiqui’s lawyer cited witness testimonies that were not available at the time of her trial. He alleged that when Dr Siddiqui was on a visit to Pakistan in 2003, she was detained by the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency along with three children and handed over to the CIA which took her to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
The lawyer said that the US intelligence miscalculated while the agencies believed that Dr Aafia Siddiqui was a nuclear physicist who was working to make a radioactive bomb. He actually has a Ph.D. in education.
The U.S. Justice Department told Sky News it would not comment on Dr. Siddiqui’s allegations. The CIA has not yet responded to a request for comment.
