I am a journalist and filmmaker, who has been investigating the rather intriguing case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui since her disappearance with her three children in 2003. Can you please tell me why a Pakistani citizen, who allegedly carried out a crime in Afghanistan, was charged, tried and sentenced in a US court?
Not only did the alleged crime happen in another country, but Aafia Siddiqui was rendered without formal extradition papers and without correct consular access according to official US records. No other citizen, from anywhere else in the world, has ever been put on trial in a US criminal court for the attempted murder of US soldiers, although quite clearly, from the horrific statistics coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan the death toll and injuries of US soldiers is now running in excess of tens of thousands.
Can we assume from this that the US is now in full occupation, and, therefore, in control of sovereignty of Afghanistan or did Judge Richard Berman simply make a mistake by accepting such a case into his court? I have copied in Lord Nazir Ahmed from the British House of Lords into this email since he has taken a particularly close interest in the whole case.