KARACHI: Dr Fowzia Siddiqui — sister of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani doctor held in a United States prison — has revealed that her sister’s health has worsened since their last meeting.
After returning from the US, where she a visited to meet her incarcerated sister, Dr Fowzia said: “Aafia was weaker than last time. She spoke about being given shocks to the head.”
Dr Fowzia made the revelations at Karachi airport, after she returned from a visit to the US to meet her incarcerated sister.
She further revealed that, during their meeting at the jail, both sisters kept screaming for three hours, as there was a glass barrier in between them.
“Last time the keys were lost and this time the phone was not working,” said Dr Fowzia, adding that Aafia was taken away after their meeting ended.
She added that her sister was also given a Bible and was asked to read it.
The imprisoned Pakistani neuroscientist was charged with attempted murder and assault by a New York federal district court in 2008, following an incident during an interview with US authorities in Ghazni, Afghanistan.
Despite denying the charges, she was convicted in early 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison after 18 months in detention and has since remained imprisoned in the US.
Dr Fowzia also accused both past and present governments of being “fully complicit” in her sister’s extended imprisonment.
She also revealed that their lawyer Clive Stafford Smith had gone to Afghanistan for research on the case.
“The family that kept Aafia was also found,” she revealed.
Last week, Aafia’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, told Geo News that his client is still 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,” he disclosed after he met her.
“She is being consistently subjected to physical harassment,” he repeated.
The lawyer said that he talked 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, hence, they had to shout to communicate. He complained to the jail authorities, and another phone was provided after two days.
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