Dr
Aafia Should Have Lawyers Of Her Choice, Says Mother
4 January 2010By Shahid Husain
Dr Aafia Siddiqui's mother, Ismat Siddiqui, has said
that her daughter will not get a fair trial under the
current setting because she has been denied lawyers of
her choice.
In a letter addressed to Judge Richard Berman, which
was released to the media on Wednesday, she said: "I
do not believe that Aafia will get a fair trial under
the current setting. In your system of justice she has
to have lawyers who she trusts, but that very initial
process has been tampered with or, should I say,
sabotaged?"
The open letter to Justice Berman, who is holding the
much-publicised trial of Pakistani scientist Dr Aafia
Siddiqui in the US, was released at a crowded press
conference the at Karachi Press Club (KPC).
International Bar Association Member Qadir Khan
Mandokel was also present.
"I am a mother, a widow, but most importantly a human
being, which makes me your sister in humanity. I hope
you will read this letter as a sister conveying her
thoughts to a brother," she said. "I have wanted to
write to you for about a year but was stopped by my
children and countrypeople. Now I feel enough is
enough. I have been told that you are presiding over
my daughter's trial. I have been told that when my
daughter openly, and in writing, requested to fire
your imposed lawyers, you answered: `you are on the
eve of the trial, I will not advise it' and ignoring
her pleas and dissatisfaction, you intend to continue
with the trial. You declare her competent to stand
trial but do not respect her wishes in any way."
"I feel that you are treating her as a patient in need
of life support without a living will. You have made
her non-existent but what you seem to forget is that
governments and courts only get that authority if the
patient has no living surrogates," she said. "Honourable
judge, I am very much alive as I write this. If anyone
should have the right to decide which lawyer she gets
it should be Aafia, but if she is incompetent, then it
should be me. I am no lawyer, nor judge, nor jury but
I am a mother with a living mother's intuition," she
said.
She pointed out that Dr Aafia's defense team has been
denied choice of jury selection through the legal
questionnaire; they have been denied access to her
medical records, access to all the witnesses.
"My innocent, delicate princess has been subjected to
horrendous forms of abuse and coercions that have
stabbed the hearts of mankind very deeply and the sad
fact is that some of that has been done under your use
of force order," she said.
"Your honour, forgive me if you feel I have said
anything that you find undesirable; the truth can
sometimes be very bitter," she said. "I just want to
convey this message to you that if my daughter does
not have faith in the current lawyers then I do not
either and I believe that they are forced on to her to
make sure that she gets convicted for a crime she
never committed, and your honourable court will be
setting the cornerstones of injustice and
discrimination, a grievance without repair in the
entire world!"
"My daughter has requested and desired several times
in court and in writing that she does not have trust
in the current legal team. If she is competent, her
wishes should be respected and she should be provided
the means and opportunity to be able to choose a
defence counsel of her choice. If she is incompetent,
then I declare as her mother that I do not want these
lawyers either," she said.
The letter has been also sent to US President Barrack
Obama; Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani; US Secretary of State
Hilary Clinton; Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar
Choudhry; Chief Justice of USA John G. Roberts Jr;
Ambassador of Pakistan to USA Hussain Haqqani; the US
Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson; and Dr Aafia's
defence team.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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