Dr Aafia files petition in the US court against severe violations of democratic & human rights

TEXAS, Nov 23 (SABAH): Dr Aafia Siddiqui has filed a petition in a US federal court in Texas through her lawyers, accusing prison staff of severe violations of democratic and human rights.

The allegations made in the petition included sexual assault, abuse, denial of medical care, and religious discrimination. The petition has been filed against the US government, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and prison authorities. Dr Aafia Siddiqui is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence in a Texas jail.

Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has written a letter to United States President Joe Biden seeking Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s release as she continues to languish in an American prison for several years.

The letter addressing Biden was written on Oct 13 wherin the PM wrote about seeking the US president’s role in the case that deserves to be reviewed with compassion. “Afia, 52, has spent almost sixteen years in the US jail,” PM Shehbaz wrote in the letter.

PM Shehbaz 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”.