86 Year Federal Sentence Handed to the Gray Lady of Bagram Greater Than Necessary, Cruel and Unusual
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Billy Sinclair
Depending on who you believe, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is either an American-educated Pakistani neuroscientist kidnapped in Pakistan in 2003 and tortured by Americans in the infamous Bagram prison in Afghanistan over the next four years or she is a captured al Qaeda terrorist who tried to kill six American military personnel in Ghazni, Afghanistan in 2008. Whichever she is, she did not deserve the 86 year sentence U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman imposed on her on September 23, 2010 because she posed a threat of “recidivism.”
There are a number of fairly certain facts about the bizarre and mysterious Siddiqui case in the public record. The Pakistani-born doctor was given up to the CIA by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed following his March 1, 2003 arrest in Pakistan and subsequent torture by the intelligence agency. The “spook” agency, which had virtually transformed itself into a lawless organization of kidnappings, torture, and secret prisons during the administration of George W. Bush, leaked Siddiqui’s name to the media, including CNN who in April 2003 took the Government-fed bait and linked the doctor to alleged al-Qaeda terrorism activities. Shortly after Siddiqui’s name was made public in connection with terrorism she disappeared with her three children in Karachi, just days after returning there from America. International media outlets quickly reported she had been taken into custody by the FBI, who denied the claim, while her family members were told she had been kidnapped.
A little more than a year after her Karachi disappearance, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Patrick Mueller conducted a news conference during which Mueller called Siddiqui “an al-Qaeda operative and facilitator” who was wanted in connection “with possible terrorist threats against the United States.” However, just days after this May 2004 news conference, the FBI issued an international “information alert” which stated that while the agency had no information connecting Siddiqui “to specific terrorist activities,” the FBI still wanted “to locate and question [her].”
Many people, like Andy Worthington, became convinced that Dr. Siddiqui had been kidnapped—either by Pakistani or American authorities—and was being held in a CIA secret prison somewhere (here, here, and here). By 2007 the Human Rights Watch group released a report calling Siddiqui one of the many “ghost prisoners” being held in secret prisons controlled by the CIA. And by November of that year former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan’s Supreme Court Justice lftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who was leading an investigation into the detention and disappearance of some 500 Pakistanis, including Siddiqui.
motion for discovery of victim impact evidence; 9) request for notice of state’s intention to introduce punishment evidence pursuant to Art. 37.07 (Code of Criminal Procedure); 10) motion in limine (extraneous offenses); 11) request for notice of state’s intention to offer extraneous offenses pursuant to Rule 404(b)[Rule of Evidence]; 12) motion for pretrial hearing on admissibility of extraneous offenses; 13) written objections to admissibility of extraneous offenses and requesting for findings of fact and conclusions of law; 14) request for notice of extraneous offenses in child abuse case; 15) request for notice of state’s intention to use evidence of extraneous offenses or acts pursuant to Art. 38.37 C.C.P.; 16) request for notice of state’s intention to use evidence of impeachment pursuant to Texas Rules of Evidence 609; 17) request for notice of state’s intention to use certified copies of official documents or business records; 18) comprehensive request for notice of state’s intention to introduce evidence under rules of evidence and code of criminal procedure; 19) notice of intent to introduce evidence of extraneous offense; 20) punishment evidence or prior conviction information, motion for discovery of punishment evidence; 21) motion to list state’s witnesses [all persons contacted]; 22) motion for discovery of criminal records of all state’s witnesses; 23) motion to produce witness statements; 24) motion to require police to maintain personal notes; 25) motion to require police to maintain and produce recorded communications; 26) application to take deposition of witness and notice thereof; 27) application to take deposition of witness by written interrogatories and notice thereof; 28) motion for discovery of grand jury testimony; 29) motion for discovery of defendant’s previous trial; 30) motion for transcript of co-defendant’s trial, motion to reveal agreements entered into between the state and witnesses; 31) motion requesting disclosure of expert witnesses; 32) designation of expert witness; 33) motion for voir dire of expert witness and for pretrial ruling on admissibility of expert testimony; 34) motion for approval of expert witness funds, motion for independent forensic testing; 35) motion for defendant’s access to physical evidence; 36) motion for forensic identity testing; 37) motion for approval of funds for court-appointed investigator; 38) motion for approval of mitigation specialist funds; 39) motion for approval of forensic psychologist funds; and 40) motion for additional investigative funds.
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