Kidnapping Ordered by US
Innocent or Guilty?
Afifa Siddiq, a young woman with a full life ahead of her, was kidnapped and then returned five years later.
A graduate from MIT and a degree in Neuroscience, Siddiq was an active member in her small Massachusetts community. She would raise money for those in need and helped our Bosnian friends overseas. And then, five years ago, it all ended.
Siddiq and her three young kids were visiting her hometown in Karachi, Pakistan when she heard that she was wanted. For what? She did not know. The last anyone heard of her was in 2003. She got into a taxi and had disappeared since then.
Now, in the year 2008, Human Rights Organizations finally recovered Siddiq. She had been in a prison in Afghanistan for reasons she did not know. Her sister collected allegations that proved that Siddiq was raped. Her children, the youngest of which was six months, were also tortured and abused. Siddiq would beat her head senseless along the prison walls. Other prisoners reported her to be crying, nearly driven insane from the torture and rape. Officials called for her to be released she had not committed a crime.
Officials in Afghanistan staged an incident in order to have a 'motive.' The young ninety pound woman allegedly tried to get past a couple of U.S guards, stole their gun, and in turn was shot in the stomach.
She was then sent to New York for a trial on Monday, August 11th, 2008. The trial was later put off since she needed to see a doctor. She was suffering from many internal complications including a missing kidney, internal bleeding, and a hemorrhage. The Prospector in New York stated that she was 'too dangerous' to see a doctor and her whole sickness was faked. Afifa Siddiq came out into the courtroom in a wheelchair to weak to even speak or lift her head.
One witness who was interviewed asked news reporters why Pakistan could not have tried her if she did indeed commit a crime. He was shushed up by reporters and cameramen. Most of the witnesses did not give out their names for fear of danger.
The question is: How could this happen under today's law? Criminals and murderers always see a doctor before trial, how come it is not the same in this case where there was no proof that she had committed anything?
Siddiq now sits in a cell in New York awaiting her trial with a bullet in her stomach and much internal damage. Her three children are still in the prisons of Afghanistan.
