Pakistani doctor jailed for helping CIA find bin Laden

Friday, 25 May 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Pakistani authorities have sentenced a doctor accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden to 33 years in jail on charges of treason, officials said, a move that drew angry condemnation from US officials already at odds with Islamabad.

Shakil Afridi was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign, in which he collected DNA samples, that is believed to have helped the American intelligence agency track down bin Laden in a Pakistani town.

The al Qaeda chieftain was killed in a unilateral US special forces raid in the town of Abbottabad in May last year.

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

Afridi is the first person to be sentenced by Pakistani authorities in the bin Laden case.

The sentence was handed down under tribal laws, which unlike the national penal code do not carry the death penalty for treason.

US officials and lawmakers said Afridi deserved only praise.

“We continue to see no basis for these charges, for him being held, for any of it,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters, declining specific comment on the 33-year sentence given to Afridi.