PAKISTAN: A Pakistani court reduces the 33-year jail sentence of a Pakistani physician accused of helping the CIA trace Osama bin Laden
Record ID:
858067
PAKISTAN: A Pakistani court reduces the 33-year jail sentence of a Pakistani physician accused of helping the CIA trace Osama bin Laden
- Title: PAKISTAN: A Pakistani court reduces the 33-year jail sentence of a Pakistani physician accused of helping the CIA trace Osama bin Laden
- Date: 15th March 2014
- Summary: PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN (MARCH 15, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) LAWYER FOR SHAKIL AFRIDI, DOCTOR WHO HELPED CIA TRACE OSAMA BIN LADEN, SAMIUL HAQ, SAYING: "In our opinion, the verdict is against the law. The Commissioner only has the right to take up a fresh appeal if an appeal is filed against the verdict of the APA (Assistant Political Agent), but in this case there was no appeal."
- Embargoed: 30th March 2014 13:00
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- Location: Pakistan
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- Country: Pakistan
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- Reuters ID: LVABVPKKDKWVO4ZH7PQNO7XJ4W3
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- Story Text: A court in Peshawar on Saturday (March 15) reduced the 33-year prison term of a Pakistani physician accused of helping the CIA in tracing Osama bin Laden to his compound in Abbottabad in 2011.
According to reports, Shakil Afridi ran a fake vaccination program to collect DNA of the bin Laden family from the compound in the town of Abbottabad, where the al Qaeda leader was shot dead in a U.S. raid in May 2011.
He was arrested soon after the raid.
In June 2012, Afridi was convicted by a court in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border and sentenced to 33 years imprisonment for supporting the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militant group. The court said it did not have jurisdiction to try him for working for the CIA to trace bin Laden.
In August 2013, a Pakistani judicial official overturned the 33-year sentence of Shakil Afridi, and ordered a new trial on the grounds that the official had exceeded his authority when handing down the 2012 sentence.
On Saturday, the Commissioner's court reduced the sentence to 23 years.
Samiul Haq, a lawyer for Afridi told Reuters Television, Afridi had initially been charged for waging war against the Pakistani state.
"The APA (Assistant Political Agent) had given a sentence of 33 years, under sections 121 (a), 123 , 123 (a) and 124 of the Pakistan Penal Code. He (Afridi) had been sentenced to a total of 33 years imprisonment under these four sections. Today the Commissioner has ended the punishment under section 123 (a). This means that a 10-years' sentence has been revoked, and a 23-years sentence has been maintained," lawyer Samiul Haq said.
However, Haq said they were not satisfied with the verdict and vowed to challenge it in an upper court.
"In our opinion, the verdict is against the law. The Commissioner only has the right to take up a fresh appeal if an appeal is filed against the verdict of the APA (Assistant Political Agent), but in this case there was no appeal," Haq said.
Afridi, who remains in custody in a jail in Peshawar, has been hailed by U.S. officials as a hero for helping pinpoint bin Laden's location before the secret May 2011 raid by U.S. special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after more than a decade of searching.
Afridi's sentence further damaged ties between Pakistan and the United States when they had already strained over the bin Laden raid. Angry U.S. senators symbolically withheld $33 million in aid from Pakistan in retaliation.
Relations since then have slowly improved but there remains plenty of residual distrust on both sides. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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