Aafia Siddiqui: Doctor accused of terrorism calls for presidential pardon before Biden hands over to Trump
A Pakistani neuroscientist held in US custody has told Sky News she has hope she will be freed after “new evidence” emerged which may suggest her innocence.
Dr Aafia Siddiqui, 52, was once one of the most wanted women in the world for her alleged links to al Qaeda‘s leadership and was jailed for 86 years in 2010 for attempting to murder an FBI agent in Afghanistan.
Dr Siddiqui, dubbed “Lady al Qaeda” by her critics, has maintained her innocence and hopes the tide could now be turning.
“I hope I am not forgotten, and I hope that one day soon I will be released,” she exclusively told Sky News, through her lawyer.
“I am… a victim of injustice, pure and simple. Every day is torture… it is not easy.”
She added: “One day, Inshallah (God-willing), I will be released from this torment.”
Dr Siddiqui’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, is calling on outgoing US President Joe Biden to issue a pardon and has submitted a 76,500-word dossier to him.
Sky News has seen this dossier – but has not been able to independently verify all the claims relating to Dr Siddiqui.
President Biden has until Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday to consider the family’s application. So far he has issued 39 pardons and commuted 3,989 sentences.
Dr Aafia Siddiqui pictured in a family photo
‘A catalogue of intelligence errors’
Mr Stafford Smith claims a catalogue of intelligence errors led to her initially becoming a suspect, citing witness testimonies that were unavailable at the time of her trial.
He alleges that, while Dr Siddiqui was visiting Pakistan in 2003, she was abducted with her three children by the country’s inter-services intelligence agency and handed to the CIA, which took her to Bagram air base in Afghanistan.
‘Extraordinary rendition’
The CIA accused Dr Siddiqui of operating for al Qaeda in Afghanistan – and she was the only woman who went through its full extraordinary rendition to torture programme in the early 2000s, Mr Stafford Smith claims.
Extraordinary rendition is a process that often involves a detainee being transferred to secret detention or a third country for the purposes of interrogation.
Clive Stafford Smith says the case is one of the worst miscarriages of justice he’s seen
At the time of Dr Siddiqui’s trial in 2010, the judge said: “There is no credible evidence in the record that the United States officials and/or agencies detained Dr Siddiqui” before her 2008 arrest, adding there is “no evidence in the record to substantiate these allegations or to establish them as fact”.
‘No more of a terrorist than I am’
Mr Stafford Smith says US intelligence “got the wrong end of the stick in the beginning” as agencies thought Dr Siddiqui was a nuclear physicist working on a radioactive bomb “when she really did her PhD in education”.
He says this happened as the US was “terrified of terrorists getting their hands on WMD (weapons of mass destruction)”, adding: “She’s no more of a terrorist than I am”.
Mr Stafford Smith, who has secured the release of 69 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, says Dr Siddiqui’s case is “one of the worst I have seen”.
The US Department of Justice told Sky News, concerning all allegations about Dr Siddiqui, that they “will decline to comment”.
The CIA has not yet got back to our request for comment.
‘Capable and dangerous’
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou believed unequivocally that Dr Siddiqui had “terrorist sympathies”.
Mr Kiriakou worked for the CIA in counterterrorism until 2004 and told Sky News he “literally knew everything that the CIA was doing around the world”.
Protests have been held calling for Dr Siddiqui’s release
“One of the things that the CIA concentrated very heavily on in the months and years after the 9/11 attacks was the task of identifying al Qaeda’s couriers,” he said.
“We just had no clear idea how al Qaeda’s leadership was communicating.
“We had heard over the years of a woman, a female courier, Aafia Siddiqui. Many people called her Lady al Qaeda, just because we didn’t know much about her.
“Her name had popped up on many occasions.
“We would hear her name mentioned as someone who could be trusted. She was presented to us as one of the most capable and dangerous figures in that movement.”
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou says Dr Siddiqui used to be referred to as ‘Lady al Qaeda’
Mr Kiriakou denies the CIA tortured Dr Siddiqui in Afghanistan while he worked for the agency, saying: “We did not torture women.”
“If Aafia Siddiqui had been captured in 2003 and had been sent to a black site, I would have known it,” he added.
“I would have briefed it to the director of the CIA. We didn’t have her.”
However, he says it was “not beneath” CIA officers “to lie in official reporting cables” and that “the CIA routinely got things wrong when it came to other high-value targets”.
‘A very bad cover-up’
Dr Siddiqui’s sister, Fowzia, says she was a “victim of the war on terror… of a very bad cover-up”.
Speaking to Sky News from her home in Karachi, Pakistan, she said Dr Siddiqui was being “victimised for what a group of fanatics did some time ago… all the innocent people who fit a certain profile have been victimised”.
Fowzia Siddiqui says her sister was ‘victimised for what a group of fanatics did some time ago’
Fowzia has spent almost two decades campaigning for her sister’s freedom and helped locate and raise her children, Ahmed and Mariam, after their alleged abduction in 2003.
Dr Siddiqui’s youngest son, Suleiman, was just six months old when he was last seen around this time – and the Siddiqui family fear he was killed during the alleged abduction.
Pakistan’s inter-services intelligence has been contacted for comment.
“I know she’s innocent,” says Fowzia. “If I knew there was even a glimpse of guilt there I would not have put my whole life on hold for this. She doesn’t deserve to be where she is.”
At least 36 people have been killed after a fire engulfed several buildings at a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said another 279 people were reported missing. He said 29 people remained in hospital.
About 900 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters after the blaze – Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in years – broke out at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the city’s Tai Po district.
Three men have since been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, broadcaster RTHK reported.
Pics: AP
Meanwhile, fire chiefs said the high temperatures were making it challenging for crews to mount rescue operations.
Mr Lee said the fire was “coming under control” shortly after midnight.
The blaze was upgraded to a level 5 alarm, the highest level of severity, as night fell.
Pics: AP
The dead included one firefighter, officials said earlier.
A number of other firefighters were said to have been hurt while trying to tackle the flames as they ripped through the 31-storey towers.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
Records show the Wang Fuk Court site consists of eight blocks, with almost 2,000 apartments housing around 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. It was built in the 1980s and has recently been undergoing a major renovation.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
The fire, which broke out at 2.51pm local time, had spread on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting set up around the exterior of the complex.
It was not known how the fire started, but officials said it began on the external scaffolding of one of the buildings before spreading inside and to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Flames and smoke were still pouring out of many windows as night fell.
Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the firefighter who died, and extended his sympathies to the families of the victims, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He also urged an “all-out” effort to minimise casualties and losses.
The UK’s foreign secretary described the fire as “truly devastating and deeply depressing”. Yvette Cooper said: “The UK sends heartfelt condolences to all the families affected and to the people of Hong Kong.”
Tai Po is in the northern part of Hong Kong, and close to the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.
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Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects.
However, the government said earlier this year it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.
The blaze is the deadliest fire in Hong Kong since the deaths of 41 people in a commercial building in Kowloon in November 1996.
That fire was later found to have been caused by welding during internal renovations, with a public inquiry yielding sweeping updates to building standards and fire safety regulations in the city’s high-rise offices, shops and homes.
Two military personnel who were shot near the White House in Washington DC have died.
A suspect has been taken into custody and the area secured, police said.
The White House was placed into lockdown, while US President Donald Trump is away in Florida.
Washington DC shooting latest updates
Pics: AP
Mr Trump initially posted on his Truth Social platform to say the two National Guardsmen had been “critically wounded”, adding that the “animal” that shot them “is also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price”.
But West Virginia’s governor said both victims were members of his state’s National Guard and had died from their injuries.
Patrick Morrisey added: “These brave West Virginians lost their lives in the service of their country. … Our entire state grieves with their families, their loved ones, and the Guard community. West Virginia will never forget their service or their sacrifice, and we will demand full accountability for this horrific act.”
Pic: AP
Police tape cordoned off the scene, while agents from the US Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene, as National Guard troops stood sentry nearby.
Emergency personnel cordon off an area near where National Guard soldiers were shot. Pics: AP
The Joint DC Task Force confirmed it was responding to an incident in the vicinity of the White House.
The DC Police Department posted on X: “Critical Incident: MPD is on the scene of a shooting at 17th and I Street, NW. Please avoid the area.”
In an update, the force said: “The scene is secured. One suspect is in custody.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The White House is aware and actively monitoring this tragic situation.
“The president has been briefed.”
Mr Trump was at his resort in Palm Beach ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, while US vice president JD Vance was in Kentucky.
Flights arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were temporarily halted due to its proximity to the scene of the shooting, the US Federal Aviation Administration said.
Hundreds of National Guard members have been patrolling the nation’s capital after Mr Trump issued an emergency order in August, which federalised the local police force and sent in the guard from eight states and the District of Columbia.
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