PESHAWAR: A Pakistani doctor who helped the United States find Osama Bin Laden was jailed for aiding militants and not for links to the CIA, as Pakistani officials had said, according to a court document seen by Reuters yesterday.
Last week, a court in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border jailed Shakil Afridi for 33 years. Pakistani officials told Western and domestic media the decision was based on treason charges for aiding the CIA in its hunt for the Al-Qaeda chief. But in the latest twist, the judgment document made available to the media states that Afridi was jailed because of his close ties to the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Islam, which amounts to waging war against the state.
It’s unclear why Pakistani officials first said Afridi was jailed over his links to the CIA. The government may have wanted to show a largely anti-American public that Pakistan will not tolerate any cooperation with the American spy agency, especially at a time of troubled relations with Washington.
“There was a lot of friction because of this case with the United States. This appears to be an effort to patch things up with the United States, while also satisfying the people of Pakistan that Afridi has been punished,” said Mansur Mehsud, director for research at the FATA Research Center, an independent think tank based in Islamabad.
“The mindset is being managed, confusion created, about what exactly he has done.”
While the document stated there was evidence that Afridi “has been shown acting with other foreign intelligence agencies,” it noted the court in Khyber had no jurisdiction to act on that. But the court recommended that the evidence may be produced before an appropriate court for further proceedings.
The Afridi case has further strained ties between the United States and Pakistan, already damaged by a series of events, including a NATO cross-border air attack last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. US officials hail Afridi as a hero who helped the CIA track down Bin Laden, who was killed by US Navy SEALs in a raid in Abbottabad last year.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggested that the jailing of Afridi would hurt efforts to repair relations between the US and Pakistan that were damaged by Bin Laden’s killing.
Many Pakistanis were infuriated by the US raid to get Bin Laden, and they see Afridi as a villain who conspired against the state and brought unwanted scrutiny of Pakistan’s attitude to militants.
FROM: REUTERS
Doctor sentenced for aiding militants not for links to CIA
