U.S. lawmaker proposes exchange of Pakistani prisoners
WASHINGTON – A U.S. congressman has proposed exchanging Pakistani prisoner Aafia Siddiqui for another Pakistani prisoner Shakil Afridi.
Afridi is a Pakistani doctor who is believed to have helped the CIA run a fake vaccination campaign to track al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
He was sentenced to 33 years in prison in Pakistan, but the sentence was later reduced to 10 years.
Siddiqui is serving an 86-year sentence in Texas for the attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
Congressman Brad Sherman argued Afridi deserved to be released. He said Afridi had been a key member of the U.S. team that killed bin Laden.
He also said that medical doctor Afridi risked his life to help the U.S. capture the world’s most wanted terrorist.
State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Horst said the U.S. is concerned about Afridi. She said the government is willing to look for creative solutions to get him out of prison.
Siddiqui, a Pakistani prisoner who graduated from Brandeis College, had disappeared in Pakistan in 2004 along with her three minor children.
Later, in 2008, she was discovered at a U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan. In 2010, she was sentenced to prison by a U.S. court.
Last month, she was allowed by U.S. authorities to meet her sister, Fauzia Siddiqui, after nearly 20 years at the Federal Medical Center in Texas.
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