A mockery of justice

"    The 'honest' and 'law-abiding' Americans knowing that the Afghan police officials who were the eye-witnesses of the incident could not be persuaded to tell lies and narrate the American-cooked story, shifted the wounded and still under treatment Aafia in a hurry to New York on August 4, 2008 but instead of admitting her in a hospital they admitted her in a New York jail with her hands and feet chained.

Now in view of the foregoing the following points need special attention:

"    Shifting of the wounded and still bleeding Aafia from Ghazni to New York in that condition was unjust and inhuman.

"    Instead of admitting her in a hospital she was taken to a jail handcuffed and feet-chained. This was another unjust and inhuman act. And she is still, when I am writing these lines (September 19, 2008) handcuffed and feet-chained.

"    No treatment of any kind was allowed to her for 2 to 3 days. When on the appeal of her attorney the judge ordered proper medical examination and treatment, she was simply given 2 Aspirin tablets by the jail staff. Everybody having a little knowledge of medicines knows, that giving an aspirin to a bleeding person is not a treatment rather it is poisoning the wounded person because aspirin thins out the blood and instead of stopping it enhances the bleeding.

"    After repeated appeals of the Aafia's attorney to the court of law for her examination by a qualified doctor, a male doctor was called in who recorded his views after examining her that "She should be immediately admitted to a hospital for treatment." But it was never honoured. Does it meet justice requirement from any standard? Can any other nation on earth act so inhuman as the Americans have acted in case of Dr Aafia and many others?

"    Dr Aafia, after being transported to New York has been deprived of her main witnesses i.e. the Ghazni police chief and his staff present at the site of the incident. Is it not totally unjust and unlawful?

"    In the selection of the venue of Aafia's trial all cunningness and partiality is evident: The court selected is not only a US court (instead of an Afghan court in Afghanistan) but a court in the city of New York that too located hardly a mile away from the site of Twin Towers destroyed on September 11, 2001. This is apparently a deliberate attempt to poison the minds of the jury and the local public against Aafia. All this is aimed at the goal that she should not be able to get justice. Is it justice?

"    She was separated from her children at the time of her kidnapping and still since the last five and a half years she remains separated even when no guilt has been proved as yet and the children have already been located. Is it permissible from any standard of justice?

"    Dr Aafia's elder son Master Muhammad Ahmed has been repatriated to her family at Islamabad on September 15, 2008. But despite best efforts of her family members and their lawyers in USA this good news has not been allowed to be passed on to her till yet (September 19, 2008). This is apparently in a brutal and mischievous endeavour to see that the tortured and dying Aafia may not recover on hearing this hopeful and pleasant news. Does it stay at any level of humanity? Does it stay at any level of justice? Is it not a mockery of justice?

In consideration of above one feels fully justified to conclude that the American's wish that Dr Aafia should die in their captivity un-met with her family and un-met with the free media so that the world is not able to know the tales of the inhuman physical and mental torture which they have inflicted upon her during the last 5 and a half years.

The writer is ex-chief Geologist, Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation Islamabad, and maternal uncle of Dr Aafia Siddiqi

E-mail: s.h.faruqi@live.com