WASHINGTON: A US judge has given Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s defense team access to fresh, private information that may support her plea for clemency. Siddiqui was convicted of attacking US servicemen.
US District Judge Richard M. Berman’s order, which contains information that “could… pose a threat to public safety and the national security” if wrongly exposed, grants Ms. Siddiqui’s attorneys restricted access to vital discovery files, some of which date back to 2009.
One of the attorneys actively fighting for Ms. Siddiqui’s release, Clive Stafford Smith, expressed optimism on the new information, stating that he had obtained “compelling new evidence about the ‘Black Site’ where Aafia was held after time in the Bagram isolation cells.”
Mr. Smith also submitted a 56,600-word clemency appeal, attempting to draw attention to the inequalities and complexity of Ms. Siddiqui’s case.
The legal team’s motion was founded on a statute that permits an individual under federal custody to contest their conviction or sentence on a number of grounds, such as: the sentence contravenes federal law or the US Constitution; the court that issued the sentence lacked jurisdiction; or the sentence was longer than what is permitted by law.
Usually, the court that sentenced the person receives such a motion. Similar to a federal habeas corpus petition, it is a post-conviction remedy reserved for federal inmates.
A federal prisoner’s sentence may be reduced under a different legislation cited in the request, frequently for compassionate reasons such as life-threatening illnesses or other “extraordinary and compelling reasons.”
