By Stephen Lendman

September 24, 2010 - On September 23 in federal court, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman sentenced political prisoner Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison.

Outrage most accurately expresses this gross miscarriage of justice, compounding what she's already endured following her March 30, 2003 abduction, imprisonment, torture, prosecution, and conviction on bogus charges.

In modern times, she's one of Amerikan depravity's most aggrieved victims, now given a virtual life sentence for a crime she didn't and couldn't have committed.

In recent months, she's been in New York's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in maximum security solitary confinement, during her trial, conviction and September 23 sentencing. Importantly, her life was effectively destroyed by years of horrific tortures, repeated rapings, and other abuses in Bagram Prison at Amerika's Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

Addressing the court, Dr. Aafia said, "I'm not paranoid. I'm not mentally ill. I don't agree with" anyone saying so, though it's hard imagining why not after years of horrific brutalization. A Pakistani/Amerikan scientist, years of torture and abuse destroyed her persona, yet somehow she survived and endured more stress from prosecution, a travesty of a trial, conviction and sentencing.

Reporting on the court's decision, the BBC repeated government lies, including her possessing bomb making instructions to blow up New York landmarks - "evidence that she was a potentially dangerous terrorist." Yet her indictment was on totally different charges - preposterous ones accusing her of the following:

In the presence of two FBI agents, two Army interpreters, and three U.S. Army officers, this frail 110 pound woman allegedly assaulted three of them, seized one of their rifles, opened fire at close range, hit no one, yet she alone was severely wounded.

At trial, no credible evidence was presented. The charges were concocted and bogus. None accused her of plotting to blow up New York or any other landmarks or facilities.

Yet proceedings were carefully orchestrated. Witnesses were enlisted, pressured, coerced, and/or bribed to cooperate. Jurors were then intimidated to convict, her attorney Elaine Whitfield Sharp, saying their verdict was "based on fear, not fact." No evidence was presented except claims government prosecutors invented to convict.

The International Tribune also highlighted today's proceedings, headlining, "Dr. Aafia sentenced to 86 years imprisonment," saying:

It was on seven counts "for allegedly firing at U.S. troops in Afghanistan." After the announcement, protests erupted across Pakistan. In Karachi, civil society and political party workers rallied "in front of the Karachi Press Club, ask(ing) the federal government" to intervene on her behalf.

Jamaat-e-Islami, PASBAN, Defense of Human Rights, and other civil society members marched toward the U.S. Embassy, expressing outrage and demanding she be released "as a goodwill gesture."

"Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister Ms. Sharmila Farooqui asked the United States to release (her) on humanitarian (grounds) as a goodwill gesture to Pakistan. Now is the time for the U.S. to show goodness and pardon a Pakistani woman who is innocent."

Farooqui said Aafia was wrongly abducted, then handed over to U.S. authorities. She's "an innocent woman," outrageously treated, convicted and sentenced.

"In Islam and Pakistan, handing over a woman to foreign countries is a sin, but it is a pity that an innocent woman was mercilessly given in(to the) hands of the (previous) U.S." government, said Farooqui.

She also urged international human rights organizations to actively pursue her release.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..