NOVANEWS
THE PEACE THRU JUSTICE FOUNDATION
For Immediate
Release
When: December 10, 2014 @ 9 AM
Where: The National Press Club
529 14th Street NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC. 20004
A press conference is scheduled for Wednesday, December 10, 2014 –“International Human Rights Day” – in the Bloomberg Room of the National Press Club in downtown Washington, DC. The conference will focus on a Pakistani national, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, imprisoned in the United States for the past six years (after five years of secret imprisonment and torture overseas). The starting time for the press conference will be 9 AM.
On or about November 19, 2014, a Pakistani consular official, Ms. Saadia Qazi, traveled from Houston to the Carswell Airbase in Fort Worth, Texas (home of FMC Carswell), to facilitate a telephone visit for the Siddiqui family in Karachi, Pakistan, with Dr. Aafia Sidiqui. Despite repeated efforts, the Siddiqui family had not been able to communicate with their loved one in months, and didn’t know if she was still alive or dead.
The November 19th effort was not successful. The prisoner, said to be Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, was uncooperative and the consular official never saw her face. Needless to say, the incident raised even more questions about the status of Dr. Siddiqui’s physical and psychological well-being. Consequently, Wednesday’s press conference will call upon the U.S. Government, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), to do the following:
1. To allow an independent medical team into FMC Carswell to conduct a full examination of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. The evaluation team should include her sister, Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, a practicing physician in Karachi, Pakistan.
2. To engage in serious discussions on the repatriation of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to her home country (Pakistan), to allow her to serve out the remainder of her sentence there, under the appropriate international law.
3. Until such time as repatriation takes place, to insure that Dr. Siddiqui’s human rights are respected by all agents of the U.S. government with oversight responsibility over the conditions of her confinement in the United States of America.
A diverse array of speakers is expected to address Wednesday’s press conference at the NPC. An invitation has also been extended to Pakistan Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani to address the forum on efforts underway by the Pakistani government to secure the repatriation of its citizen. (The full roster of speakers is expected to be confirmed by Tuesday, December 9.)
At a time when: (a) the international community has become increasingly concerned about human rights abuses in the United States of America; (b) militant groups abroad have used the imprisonment of Aafia Siddiqui for propaganda and recruitment purposes; (c) and close to 110,000 people (during a one month period) signed a White House Petition calling for the release and repatriation of Dr. Siddiqui – we believe it is in America’s national interest to give serious consideration to this political prisoner’s repatriation. And until such time, to insure that she is accorded her full human rights, as ostensibly guaranteed in both U.S. and international law.
For additional information: (202) 246-9608
E-mail: peacethrujustice@aol.com
