Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC)

Sunday 28 March 2010 is the 7th anniversary of the kidnapping of Aafia Siddiqui and her children. To commemorate this, the Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC) has been formed - an umbrella organisation, currently spanning four continents, which aims to unite and direct all individuals and organisations concerned for our sister and working for her release.

We all should be aware of the plight of our sister Aafia Siddiqui who last month was convicted of the attempted murder of US soldiers in Afghanistan whilst in custody. The hidden side of this story is the fact that Aafia had been missing since 2003 and claims that she was kidnapped with her three children by the Pakistani intelligence services, transferred to US custody and held in a series of secret prisons away from her children for five years during which time she was repeatedly raped, tortured and abused. Two of her children remain missing to this day.

Aafia's trial was also flawed in that there was no evidence of any gun residue from the rifle she is alleged to have shot, no trace of her fingerprints on the rifle, no bullet shells found in the room or bullet holes in the wall. The testimonies of the soldiers conflicted with each other and with their own earlier statements. Despite the prosecution admitting Aafia was not a member of al-Qaeda or linked to any terrorist group, she was for all intents and purposes, tried as such. Her sentencing is on 6 May - she faces spending the rest of her life in an American maximum security prison. Since her conviction, she has been denied access to phone calls, sending or receiving letters, or any visits, in the interests of ‘national security.’

AAFIA SIDDIQUI DAY

Sunday 28 March 2010 is the 7th anniversary of the kidnapping of Aafia and her children. To commemorate this and to highlight Aafia's case as symbolic of the brutality of the 'war on terror' with the aim of having her repatriated to Pakistan and launching an investigation into the whereabouts of her missing children, the Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC - www.justiceforaafia.org) has been formed - an umbrella organisation, currently spanning four continents, which aims to unite and direct all individuals and organisations concerned for our sister and working for her release In an international day of protest, we aim to have events, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, khutbahs, etc in towns and cities all over the world in solidarity with Aafia on the one day - 28 March.

All it takes is for each person to do the following:

a)Organise an event (or screening) in your locality; rather than asking us to supply speakers, people could spend one hour reading up on her case thoroughly and presenting it to his community. JFAC will aim to provide you with the necessary information pack to deliver a presentation. If people educate themselves on the case and do the talk themselves, it is more empowering than just having an external speaker come. If you are interested in organising an event or hosting a related documentary screening, please email events@justiceforaafia.org. All events will be publicised on our website.

b) For those in the UK: Attend the Aafia Siddiqui Solidarity March, from the Pakistani embassy to the US embassy, in London on Sunday March 28th, 2pm. Promote this and for those living outside London, organise coaches to bring people down.

c) Get 20 people from your community to send a letter to both your local paper and a national paper in the week beginning 22 March. The letters should be short, to the point and mention Aafia Siddiqui Day, the kidnapping and detention, missing children and the event. The individual must collect the letters, buy the postage and envelopes and post the letters. You have 20 days from today to get 19 letters (excluding the one you send yourself).

d) Get 20 people (doesn’t have to be the same 20) to send a letter to Aafia that day , from children in particular. Even though she is currently being denied mail, if the volume is enough, they may just let a few through.

e) An information leaflet, campaign pack and other resources will be shortly available, along with translations of the campaign materials into as many languages as we can. The aim is that anyone in the world can then just print off their particular language and distribute, thereby empowering them and decreasing dependency.

f) Approach your local mosque or Islamic Society to dedicate their khutbah on Friday 26 March to the case of Aafia Sddiqui. A khutbah template will soon be available for download.

There are many other projects in development and events are confirmed for UK, USA, Pakistan, Canada, Ireland, and Australia.

If you would like to assist us in the campaign please email info@justiceforaafia.org.

Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC)
www.justiceforaafia.org