Pak doc who helped nab Osama launches hunger strike in jail

Islamabad: A Pakistani doctor who played a key role in the capture of former Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, on Monday launched a hunger strike inside a jail alleging that appeals against his prison sentence have been delayed repeatedly.

Shakil Afridi, who took part in a false vaccination campaign in Abbottabad which was orchestrated by the US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to obtain Bin Laden’s DNA samples, has been serving a 23-year sentence.

“He is on hunger strike from today (Monday),” Afridi’s lawyer Qamar Nadeem told Efe news regarding his client, who is placed in a high security prison in Punjab province.

Nadeem alleged Afridi was facing an “inhuman” and “unjust” situation after around 65 delays in appeal hearings against his sentence, which was based on charges of having links to terrorist groups.

“It is inhuman, injustice, and not according to Sharia or any other law,” the lawyer added.

Afridi was arrested shortly after the Al Qaeda leader was killed in a special operation by US special forces on May 2, 2011, at his compound in Abbottabad.

A year later, Afridi received a 33-year prison sentence by a court in the Pakistan’s tribal areas, which still follow colonial British era laws not related to the country’s constitution, for links to terrorist groups.

The doctor was explicitly convicted for high treason for his cooperation with CIA, and his sentence was later reduced to 23 years in prison, although no hearings have taken place since then.

In June 2019, the case went to the Peshawar High Court but hearings were postponed five times without any progress in the case, according to the lawyer.

US President Donald Trump had said during an election campaign in May 2016 that he would get Afridi freed within two minutes if he won the elections.

The comment had evoked a condemnation from Pakistan.

IANS