Pakistan: Doctor who helped find bin Laden hideout gets 33 years
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 23 May 2012 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Pakistan: Doctor who helped find bin Laden hideout gets 33 years, 23 May 2012, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4fc8adb71e.html [accessed 25 May 2013] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Last updated (GMT/UTC): 23.05.2012 19:11
Pakistani authorities have sentenced a doctor charged with helping the United States find Al-Qaeda militant leader Osama bin Laden to 33 years in prison.
The doctor, Shakil Afridi, was charged with running a fake vaccination campaign in Abbotabad that helped identify bin Laden's hiding place in the northern Pakistan city.
Afridi, who was sacked as a government doctor two months ago, was found guilty under the justice system in Khyber district, part of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt.
U.S. forces raided bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad and killed him in May last year.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on May 23 that Washington saw "no basis" for Pakistan to detain or charge Afridi.
And U.S. Senators Carl Levin and John McCain issued a joint statement calling Afridi's sentence "shocking and outrageous."
Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
