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The letter from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was submitted to a
court in Islamabad that was hearing a petition from the sister
of Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist who was
convicted in 2010 on charges including attempting to kill U.S.
nationals.
Siddiqui became a terrorism suspect after she left the U.S. and
married a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a self-proclaimed
mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. She was wounded during
a confrontation with U.S. authorities in Afghanistan in 2008.
Witnesses say she shot at the Americans.
According to a copy of Sharif's letter, dated Oct. 13, seen by
The Associated Press, the prime minister informed Biden that the
woman had already served 16 years in prison.
He wrote that the matter deserved “to be viewed with
compassion.” Sharif said over the years, numerous Pakistani
officials paid consular visit to her and raised serious concern
about the treatment she received, which severely impacted her
already fragile mental and as well as frail physical health.
“In fact, they fear that she could take her own life,” Sharif
wrote about the assessment of the Pakistani officials.
He asked Biden to accept her sister's clemency petition and
order her release on humanitarian grounds.
Siddiqui’s “family, and millions of my fellow citizens join me
in seeking your blessings for a favorable outcome of this
request,” he told Biden in the letter.
Siddiqui's family has long maintained that she disappeared from
Karachi in 2003 and blamed the government of former dictator
Pervez Musharraf for secretly handing her over to U.S.
officials.
Musharraf was in power when Pakistan became an ally of the U.S.
in the war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. His government
arrested dozens of suspects ad handed them over to various
governments, including Washington.
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Associated Press writer Asim Tanveer contributed to this story
from Multan, Pakistan.
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