Doctor who helped locate Osama given 33 years jail term

[ParkCungHee]

I need to sleep. I read this thread title as "Doctor Who helped locate Osama, given 33 years jail term."

 

[Silurian]

Possibly a bit late, but I just read the thread title as 'Doctor Who helped locate Osama; given 33 years' jail term'

ParkCungHee you know who to blame

 

[ParkCungHee]

Yes, but see, I posted first because wibbly wobbly timey wimey...stuff.

 

[del62]

I thin that the US took the unilateral action because of concerns of al-Qaida sympithisers in the Pakistani Intelligience Agency, thus comprimising there chance to get Bin Laden.

Now Pakistan is within their rights to ppunish the guy, but the US is in their rights to subsequently withdraw aid to Pakistan.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Here's some belated irony: It turns out Afridi wasn't convicted of treason at all. He was convicted of aiding and abetting an Islamic warlord wanted by the government:

New Details Emerge on Conviction of Pakistani Who Aided Bin Laden Search

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Tribal court documents show that the Pakistani doctor who was sentenced to 33 years in prison after helping the C.I.A. track down Osama bin Laden had not been charged with treason, as some Pakistani officials had initially reported.

The doctor, Shakil Afridi, who was tried under Pakistan’s opaque tribal justice system, was instead convicted of colluding with a local Islamist warlord, to whom he was accused of donating more than $20,000.

The revelation, detailed in a five-page court order that was first reported in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, adds an intriguing twist to a cloudy case that has come to embody the dismal relations between Islamabad and Washington. News of Dr. Afridi’s conviction a week ago set off fury in Washington, and lawmakers there voted to cut $33 million in American aid to Pakistan, $1 million for each year of his sentence; some suggested that American aid to the country should be severed entirely.

The C.I.A. paid Dr. Afridi to run a vaccination program in Abbottabad in March and April 2011, as cover for an intelligence operation to establish that Bin Laden and his family were living in a large three-story house in the town.

Three weeks after the raid by Navy SEALs that killed Bin Laden on May 2, 2011, Dr. Afridi was picked up by Pakistani intelligence, and he has not been seen since. Despite intense news media speculation that Dr. Afridi would face treason charges in a regular court, his case was moved to Khyber Agency in the tribal belt, which operates under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, an arcane, colonial-era legal system.

In a closed-door hearing in early May, the four-man council of tribal elders that heard Dr. Afridi’s case declined to examine the allegations of C.I.A. ties, citing a lack of jurisdiction. Instead the court focused on Dr. Afridi’s links to Mangal Bagh, an Islamist warlord whose fighters are battling the Pakistan Army in Khyber Agency. He was convicted on May 23 and ordered to pay $3,500 in fines in addition to his lengthy prison sentence.

But Pakistani analysts say that despite the harsh sentence, the fact that he was convicted under tribal law could ultimately work in Dr. Afridi’s favor, leaving more room for an early release — or perhaps even an exchange deal with the United States, said Asad Durrani, a former head of the main Pakistani military intelligence agency.

So the bargaining table is now apparently open. How much is it worth to the American public to help free what seems to now be terrorist / "hero"?

 

[classical_hero]

Could they be trumped up charges to make them look good?

 

[kramerfan86]

Honesty its a clever method to weaken US attempts to free him

 

[Flying Pig]

the four-man council of tribal elders that heard Dr. Afridi’s case

Justice at its finest!

 

[holy king]

You're right - it actually gives us the right to declare war on them, nuke their cities and listen to the lamentations of their women.

now who the hell are "you"???

 

[druidravi]

Well the militant group has denied Dr Afridi is colluding with it http://dawn.com/2012/05/31/lashkar-i-islam-denies-links-with-shakeel-afridi/

Spoiler :

Lashkar-i-Islam, led by bus conductor turned warlord Mangal Bagh, is a militant organisation feared for kidnappings and extortion in his home district of Khyber.

The court order said Afridi had “close links” to the group, saying the doctor’s “love” for Bagh and “association with him was an open secret”.

But a commander in the organisation told AFP that they had nothing to do with Afridi.

“We have no link to such a shameless man,” the commander said on condition of anonymity.
The court said Afridi paid two million rupees ($21,000) to Lashkar-i-Islam and helped to provide medical assistance to militant commanders in Khyber.But the commander said the $21,000 was a fine imposed for over-charging patients

Local residents have also told AFP that Bagh fined Afridi for performing “unnecessary surgeries and over-charging” patients at his private clinic in the town of Bara.

The supposed 'crime' was done in Abbotbad. But instead of him being tried in a regular court there , he was transferred to a tribal court where judgements are easier to cook.

Spoiler :

Despite intense news media speculation that Dr. Afridi would face treason charges in a regular court, his case was moved to Khyber Agency in the tribal belt, which operates under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, an arcane, colonial-era legal system.

Meanwhile this man and this man the perperators of the Mumbai attacks roam free.

 

[timtofly]

I need to sleep. I read this thread title as "Doctor Who helped locate Osama, given 33 years jail term."

I don't need to sleep, and that is what I "see" every time this thread comes into view. Art is better than life stuff.