JFAC launched a campaign for the recovery of Suleman Fatih Muhammad, the missing son of Aafia Siddiqui, at Sunday's rally outside the US embassy, London.
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Suleman Fatih Muhammad was last seen on 28th March 2003. Six month old baby Suleman was in the company of his two siblings and his mother, Aafia Siddiqui, en route to the airport, never to reach their destination. Suleman was reportedly abducted by Pakistani and US agents, lying in wait for the family as they left their Karachi residence. Placed in a separate car from his mother, he was reportedly bleeding. His mother was later shown a photo of Suleman, lying in a pool of blood. His whereabouts have been unknown for the past seven years. Suleman’s brother and sister were eventually recovered in 2008 and 2010 respectively, released from custody in Afghanistan. Contact us if you assist in locating Suleman.
BACKGROUND
Suleman Fatih Muhammad is the son of Pakistani neuroscientist, Aafia, who disappeared along with her three children in Karachi in March 2003. Their whereabouts remained unknown for the next five years. The CIA and the US Department of Justice have denied that the United States had held Siddiqui or her children during the period of her disappearance. However, Aafia, her family and campaigners assert that Siddiqui and her children were held in secret US detention, a claim that is supported by the testimonies of former Bagram prisoners, who heard horrific screams from a female Pakistani prisoner, with the serial number ‘650’, identified later as Siddiqui.
Following demands for her recovery by human rights organisations and the Pakistani public, Aafia resurfaced with her eldest son Ahmed, in Afghanistan in August 2008, framed with the attempted murder of US personnel. Transferred to the US, Aafia was convicted in a shocking miscarriage of justice, despite the conflicting testimony of the soldiers and lack of evidence - no gun residue from the rifle, no trace of fingerprints on the rifle, no bullet shells in the room or bullet holes on the walls. 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. She will be sentenced on 16th August and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison – never to see her children again. Following her conviction, she has been denied all visitation and communication rights in the interests of ‘national security’.
Little is known about what the children endured in the years they were missing. During her trial, Aafia twice mentioned that she had been held “in secret prisons” where “(her) children were tortured” and in another statement, “they see their children tortured in front of them.” Suleman’s brother, Ahmed was released in 2008, having spent time in the custody of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country's intelligence agency, notorious for its brutal treatment of detainees; although it was not until April 2010 that Siddiqui’s daughter Maryam was finally recovered, reportedly from the US airbase at Bagram, Afghanistan where she had been held in a ‘cold, dark room’ for seven years. However for the past seven years there has been a deafening silence as far as Suleman – only six months old at the time of his disappearance - is concerned. Following her trial, one of Aafia’s legal team, Elaine Sharpe described how Suleman had been bleeding at the time of his abduction and that Siddiqui was later shown photos of him, lying in a pool of blood, giving rise grave concerns that Suleman may not have survived. In March 2010 President Karzai promised that “the children of Aafia Siddiqui will be sent home soon”, the use of the plural instilling hope that Suleman may indeed be alive.
Siddiqui’s children were not the only ones to have been detained to place pressure on the parents, persons of ‘interest’ to the US with alleged ties to Al Qaeda; two of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s children, aged 6 and 8 at the time, were held in a Karachi detention centre, in a separate area from the other prisoners. According to the testimony of a former prisoner, Mohammed Khan – the brother of Guantanamo detainee Majid Khan - they were denied food and water by the guards and were ‘mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding’. The US has also employed this tactic in the Horn of Africa, where they detained a four year old girl, Hafsa Swaleh Ali and the children of Daniel Maldonado in atrocious conditions.
Since infancy Suleman has been deprived of his basic rights, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; amazingly ratified by all governments save the U.S.A. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance prohibits the arrest, detention, abduction, or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of the State, and the subsequent refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person. The Convention states, “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.” The Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that “enforced disappearance places the persons subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and inflicts severe suffering on them and their families” and “constitutes a violation of the rules of international law.” The U.N. Human Rights Committee has also determined that enforced disappearance violates article 9(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Even if one were to accept the US allegations against Aafia Siddiqui, under International Law Suleman is too young to be considered criminally responsible for the alleged acts of a parent.
DEMAND IMMEDIATE DISCLOSURE OF WHEREABOUTS AND URGENT RECOVERY OF SULEMAN FATIH MUHAMMAD
Eric Holder, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001, Tel: 202-353-1555, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Hilary Clinton, Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street, N.W. Washington DC 20520, Tel: +1 202 647 4000, Fax: +1 202 261 8577, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan, President's Secretariat, Islamabad, PAKISTAN, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Tel 92-51-9204801-9214171, Fax 92-51-9207458
Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Prime Minister House, Islamabad, PAKISTAN, Fax: + 92 51 9221596, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Mr. Rehman Malik, Minister of Interior, Room No. 404, 4th Floor, R Block,
Pak Secretariat, Islamabad, PAKISTAN, Fax: +92 51 920 2624, Tel: +92 51 9921 2026, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Islamabad, Pakistan, Tel: +92 51 921 0335, Fax: +92 51 920 7600, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
WRITE TO THE U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEURS
• Request a prompt and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Suleman’s enforced disappearance, and his alleged mistreatment; his current location, conditions of confinement and physical and psychological wellbeing.
• Request that all information that is obtained is shared with Suleman’s family, as the lack of information about whereabouts and well being of the missing children have caused and continue to cause them great suffering and anxiety.
Mr. Santiago Corcuera, Chairperson The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Office at Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Fax: +41 22 917 90 06
Mr. Martin Scheinin Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Palais Wilson, 8-14 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Genève 10, Switzerland, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Mr. Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Torture Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Palais Wilson, 8-14 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Genève 10, Switzerland, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Fax: +41 22 917 9006
SEND MESSAGE OF SUPPORT TO SULEMAN’S FAMILY
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - and to his mother:
Aafia Siddiqui # 90279-054, MDC Brooklyn, Metropolitan Detention Center, PO Box 329002, Brooklyn, NY 11232
DONATE TO HELP US LOCATE SULEMAN
BANK: Lloyds TSB Bank
ACCOUNT NAME: Justice For Aafia Coalition
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 41160960
SORT CODE: 30-94-42
IBAN: GB37LOYD30944241160960
SWIFT: LOYDGB21112
 Suleman Fatih Muhammad Flyer | [Printable pdf with 3mm bleed] | 229 Kb |
