We were joined by Clive Stafford Smith to discuss the case for Dr Aafia Siddiqui.  Clive is a human rights lawyer and founder and director of the Justice League.

WATCH HERE:

The summary of the discussion has been edited for better readability.

The discussion was moderated by Raza Kazim who opened up the event by asking Clive about Guantanamo Bay and “what compels” Clive to go again and again.

Clive: It was obvious when [Guantanamo Bay] started in 2002, that it was picking on Muslims instead of young Black men. The death penalty has always been about trying to pretend that killing a few young Black men will solve the problems of America and in the wake of 9/11 it was the same thing. I thought, what could be more fun than pursuing George Bush?

Raza: Do you see it closing?

Clive: Not anytime soon, no… Well when Obama promised [to shut down Guantanamo Bay], whether it was true or not, all of our funders at Reprieve threatened to pull out since we weren’t needed any more and 15 years later, here we are.

Clive then spoke about how he thinks Guantanamo Bay will remain open for a while, however he believes that there are some inmates that will be released soon.

Raza: What drove you to the case of Dr Aafia Siddique?

CSS: “It’s been going on for 20 years. I was approached by Fowzia Siddiqui who is Aafia’s older sister. Who, if you were ever in trouble, you’d want to have Fowzia as your sister; she is the most amazing person, who has worked for her sister for the last 20 years. [Fowzia] got [Aafia’s] son, Ahmed and daughter, Maryam, back from where they had been kidnapped.

I was in Pakistan; I just got 3 of my Pakistani Guantanamo detainees out and I was there actually for that and you know, I just thought “hey, I just got rid of 3 cases, I can take something else on”. Fowzia asked me to go to see her sister and I was going to be in Texas on a death penalty case so I thought, “why not”. I went to see Aafia in January 2023… when you go to see this woman and go to this prison, which is the worst prison I have ever been to in 40 years of doing this, I agreed to do it. We are going to get her out eventually; it is a great privilege to do it. She is the most abused prisoner in the war of terror.

Clive then chronologically told the story of how Dr Aafia was kidnapped in March 2003 and became imprisoned in the US.

Clive hypothesised on the question of how the intelligence services came to see Dr Aafia as a threat because, in his words, “she wasn’t”. He then went on to refute all of the CIA’s allegations of Aafia. Clive explained how Aafia and her children were kidnapped;  “here we are, 21 years later, she doesn’t even know if her child is dead or alive.” Clive then continued to deconstruct the case, showing how the intelligence services eventually started to believe the lies against Aafia and what Clive has done thus far to secure her freedom.

Stay updated and support Aafia’s case here: www.freedraafia.org

Other topics and issues discussed include the detainees Clive has helped release, torture, rendition, the methodology of the intelligence services, Belmarsh prison, and more.