PRESS RELEASE
NO EMBARGO
Date: 31 March 2023
Al Jama-ah remembers Prisoner of Conscience, Dr Aafia Siddiqui incarcerated in the USA.
Today, 31st March 2023 marks 15 years of the unlawful incarceration of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. The 51-year-old Siddiqui is a neuroscientist who lived in the United States of America and in 2003 she travelled to Pakistan to visit her family.
She was arrested in 2008 on several trumped-up charges and has been sentenced to 86 years imprisonment which she is serving in a Texas jail under horrendous conditions. Her family has been denied any contact with and access to her; sadly, her mother died recently without knowing the fate of her daughter.
Al Jama-ah remembers her as a Prisoner of Conscience and will continue to highlight her plight. Last year, the party’s leader, Hon Ganief Hendricks MP, called on the South African government to raise the unlawful incarceration of Dr Siddiqui with the US ambassador; the party further wrote to the Pakistan Embassy in the US to intervene in the matter.
In his Statement to Parliament on the eve of International Women’s Day (8 March 2023), Hon Hendricks has called on the South African government to speak out against women that have been falsely accused and imprisoned because of their political activism and conscience by referring to Siddiqui.
Siddiqui’s plight remains close to the hearts of South Africans and in other parts of the world. “We call on government to demand a habeas corpus and an assurance that Dr Siddiqui is (a) alive and well and that she be (b) released on humanitarian grounds,” says Hendricks.
For further media enquiries contact national spokesperson:
Adv Shameemah Salie
Cell: 084 423 0476
or
Ms Nisa Siers: National Marketing and Communications Manager
Cell: 082 613 1917
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