Summary Judicial official Thursday overturned sentence of Shakil Afridi, who helped CIA in Osama hunt.
PESHAWAR (Dunya News) - A judicial official on Thursday overturned the 33-year sentence of Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped CIA agents hunting for Osama bin Laden.
Judicial official Sahibzada Mohammad Anees ruled the previous judge in the case exceeded his authority when handing down last year s sentence and ordered a new trial.
Afridi s sentence angered the United States, which withheld $33 million in aid for Pakistan in retaliation. Afridi remains in custody.
Afridi is accused of being a CIA informant who helped the US in capturing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The doctor was sentenced to 33 years in jail on May 24, 2012 for allegations of aiding banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Islam (LI).
He was also accused of launching a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad as a part of the Bin Laden hunt.
A tribal court of the Khyber Agency had sentenced Afridi, who is currently being held at the central prison in Peshawar, and soon after the verdict legal experts and human rights activists challenged the administration’s decision.
A panel of lawyers, mostly from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), had obtained Afridi’s power of attorney to challenge the verdict in court.
