Peshawar: A Pakistani doctor, who helped the CIA in tracking down al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden by collecting his DNA samples through a fake vaccination campaign, was sentenced to 33 years in prison for high treason on Wednesday, officials said.
The ISI had picked up Shakil Afirdi from Peshawar two weeks after the al-Qaeda chief was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan’s northern Abbottabad hillstation on May 2, 2011.
“Afridi was produced before a four-member tribal court. The court also imposed a fine of $3,480 on him,” said Mutahir Zeb Khan, the top official in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal region.
Shakil Afirdi, a resident of Pakistan’s autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas, was tried under its justice system, where the courts work under the British-era Frontier Crimes Regulation and do not follow the usual judicial norms. The region also remains outside the jurisdiction of Pakistan’s higher judiciary and death penalty is not applicable for high treason. Legal experts say Afridi was almost certain to get death penalty had he been charged under Pakistan’s criminal law.
It is not clear if Afridi knew who the target of the investigation was when the CIA recruited him.
US defence secretary Leon Panetta had confirmed in January that Afridi collected samples for the US.
He said Afridi was not in any way “treasonous towards Pakistan... for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think it is a real mistake on their part’’.
White House gave info for Laden film?
The Obama administration arranged for two Hollywood filmmakers to get special access to government officials involved in the commando operation that killed bin Laden, said a legal group that uploaded internal government documents on its website on Tuesday. Judicial Watch posted 153 pages of Pentagon documents and 113 of CIA documents
The ISI had picked up Shakil Afirdi from Peshawar two weeks after the al-Qaeda chief was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan’s northern Abbottabad hillstation on May 2, 2011.
“Afridi was produced before a four-member tribal court. The court also imposed a fine of $3,480 on him,” said Mutahir Zeb Khan, the top official in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal region.
Shakil Afirdi, a resident of Pakistan’s autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas, was tried under its justice system, where the courts work under the British-era Frontier Crimes Regulation and do not follow the usual judicial norms. The region also remains outside the jurisdiction of Pakistan’s higher judiciary and death penalty is not applicable for high treason. Legal experts say Afridi was almost certain to get death penalty had he been charged under Pakistan’s criminal law.
It is not clear if Afridi knew who the target of the investigation was when the CIA recruited him.
US defence secretary Leon Panetta had confirmed in January that Afridi collected samples for the US.
He said Afridi was not in any way “treasonous towards Pakistan... for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think it is a real mistake on their part’’.
White House gave info for Laden film?
The Obama administration arranged for two Hollywood filmmakers to get special access to government officials involved in the commando operation that killed bin Laden, said a legal group that uploaded internal government documents on its website on Tuesday. Judicial Watch posted 153 pages of Pentagon documents and 113 of CIA documents
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