PM Shehbaz urges President Biden to order Dr Aafia Siddiqui's release on humanitarian grounds

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has written a letter to the United States President Joe Biden seeking his intervention to ensure release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui who spent nearly 16 years in an American prison.

In his letter, written to Biden on October 13, the premier wrote about seeking the US president's intervention in the matter that deserves to be viewed with compassion, as Siddiqui remains incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell in Texas.

The FMC Carswell houses female inmates of all security levels, primarily with special needs pertaining to their medical and mental health.

She has been serving an 86-year sentence there, without the possibility of parole, imposed by the Southern District Court of New York.

"Now 52 years old, she has spent approximately sixteen years behind bars in the US," PM Shehbaz wrote in the letter.

Dr Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, was indicted by a New York federal district court in September 2008 on charges of attempted murder and assault, stemming from an incident during an interview with the US authorities in Ghazni, Afghanistan — charges that she denied.

After 18 months in detention, she was tried and convicted in early 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison. She has since been imprisoned in the US.

The premier further mentioned that numerous Pakistani officials have paid consular visits to Siddiqui at the prison facility over the years and have raised "serious concerns about the treatment she has received".

The treatment meted out to her has severely impacted her "already fragile mental and frail physical health".

"In fact, they even fear that she could take her own life," the prime minister mentioned in the letter.

PM Shehbaz further praised Biden for passionately fighting for the rights of US citizens, particularly those stranded or held captive abroad.

Therefore, the premier added, it is his "solemn duty" as Pakistan's premier to intervene when it becomes absolutely necessary to ensure a citizen’s well-being, particularly when the circumstances are as dire as they are in her case.

"Keeping these facts in view, I request you, Mr President, to kindly exercise your constitutional authority and accept Dr Siddiqui’s clemency petition and order her release, strictly on humanitarian grounds," he wrote urging the American president to pardon the neuroscientist.

The prime minister added that he trusts Biden to accord the most serious consideration that the request deserves.

"Her family, and millions of my fellow citizens join me in seeking your blessings for a favorable outcome 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 — told Geo.tv that the letter is "very welcome and very heartfelt from the PM".

"I have been pushing for something like this but it is only the first step," he said, adding that he hopes to meet the Pakistani delegation in Washington by the middle of November to make the rounds of the White House and other politicians.

Regarding the timing of the letter — which remains crucial as President Biden will soon say goodbye to the White House just a couple of months after the presidential elections in November — Clive said that it was something he had pressed for all along.

"The 10 weeks between the election on November 5th and inauguration on January 20th are the ten weeks when you can get something done in the US as Biden is still president, but he has nothing to lose," he said.

In June this year, Smith told Geo News that his client was being sexually harassed continuously at a jail in Fort Worth, Texas, adding that a security guard raped her two weeks ago as punishment.

"Sexual abuse of Dr Aafia has not stopped so far. She is being consistently subjected to physical harassment," he had disclosed after meeting her at the prison facility this summer.