Court upends sentence for doctor tied to bin Laden raid
U. S. calls Pakistani a hero for DNA work in manhunt
PESHAWAR, Pakistan— A Pakistani appeals court Thursday overturned the 33- year jail sentence of Shakil Afridi, a doctor widely credited with helping the CIA track down al- Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U. S. Navy SEALs in 2011.
Afridi remains in the central jail in Peshawar, where the appeal was heard, while awaiting a new trial.
U. S. officials consider Afridi a hero for his assistance, and his arrest and harsh sentence for allegedly helping militants strained ties between Washington and Islamabad already damaged by the bin Laden raid. Last year, thenSecretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denounced Afridi’s treatment as “unjust and unwarranted,” and angry members of Congress withheld $ 33 million in aid—$ 1 million for each year of Afridi’s prison term.
Afridi allegedly ran a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign, collecting DNA samples that reportedly helped the U. S. intelligence agency conclude that bin Laden was in the Abbottabad compound.
Pakistani officials originally said Afridi would face treason charges. But inMay 2012, he was charged by a court in Pakistan’s semiautonomous Khyber Agency tribal area with “conspiring against the state” by giving money and medical help to the banned militant group Lashkar- e- Islam.
Tribal areas are not governed by the country’s judicial system but by a separate set of British- era laws, in consultation with tribal elders.
Afridi has denied the charges, while his lawyers have argued that he was actually kidnapped by the group and forced to pay a ransom.
The earlier court’s decision was set aside Thursday when Judge Sahibzada Mohammad Anees ruled that the de facto judge in the case — a political agent in the tribal area representing the government — exceeded his authority, according to Afridi’s lawyer, Samiullah Afridi.
The retrial will be held under the same tribal laws but overseen by a different official.
Samiullah Afridi — whose relation to the doctor of the same name, if any, was not immediately clear — said he argued that the first judge in the case was not authorized to pass such a long sentence, that a proper trial was never held and that his client didn’t have an opportunity to defend himself.
Washington has been pressuring Pakistan to release Shakil Afridi. His lawyer said Thursday that he didn’t think the U. S. exerted any influence in Thursday’s decision, adding that his client is in danger.
“We fear if Dr. Afridi’s security is eased, he won’t be alive tomorrow,” he said. “We want him shifted to some secure facility. Even as his lawyer, I am not safe.”
Pakistani officials were irate over the bin Laden raid, which critics said made the nation’s powerful military look either complicit or incompetent after the al- Qaida leader was found a short distance from a top military academy.
The case has also increased militant threats and killings of healthworkers amid suspicion they might in reality be CIA spies.