Doctor jailed in Pakistan for helping CIA in bin Laden case

Officials said that a Pakistani doctor has been charged with treason and sentenced to 33 years in jail by Pakistani authorities after being accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden.

This move is more than likely to increase further strain between Washington and Islamabad.

Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor, was charged with setting up a fake vaccination campaign used to collect DNA samples and is believed to have helped the CIA track bin Laden down in the town of Abbottabad.

Afridi was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment and fined 320,000 Pakistani rupees (€2,761) according to a government official in north west city of Peshawar.

The jail term will be served in Peshawar and Afridi was the first person to be handed down a sentence regarding the bin Laden case.  

Unlike the national penal code, the sentence which was handed down under tribal laws did not carry the death penalty for treason but US officials were highly critical of the sentencing.

US officials have said that Afridi was working against Al Qaeda, not against Pakistan.