Another twist in Osama Bin Laden’s case, a local doctor charged of treason

According to the recent news, Dr. Shakil Afridi, a native of Khyber Agency, has been sentenced to 33 years in jail on the accusation of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden. He has been charged of treason, a local official
said.

He was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, in which he collected DNA samples, which is believed to have helped the American intelligence agency CIA to track down bin Laden.

Osama Bin was killed in a unilateral raid of U.S. Special Forces in May, 2011.

“Dr Shakil has been sentenced to 33 years imprisonment and a fine of 320,000 Pakistani rupees ($3,477),” said Mohammad Nasir, a government official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where the jail term will be served. He gave no further details.

Hence, Dr. Afridi becomes the first person to be sentenced by Pakistani authorities in the Osama murder case. The sentence was handed down under tribal laws which do not carry the death penalty for a crime such as treason.

However, the U.S. has strongly criticised the whole act.

“Without commenting on specific individuals, anyone who helped the United States find bin Laden was working against al Qaeda and not against Pakistan,” said Pentagon spokesman George Little.

Senior U.S. officials had made public appeals for Pakistan, a recipient of billions of dollars in American aid, to release Afridi, detained within weeks of the raid that killed bin Laden and strained ties with Islamabad.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=23179

Posted by Irfan Khokhar on May 23 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry