The family of the Pakistani doctor sentenced to 33 years in prison for helping the US track down Osama bin Laden said on Monday that the man is innocent and dismissed his trial as a sham.
The conviction of Shakil Afridi last week added pressure to Pakistan’s already fractured relationship with the US.
Senior American officials have urged Pakistan to release the doctor, regarding him as a hero who worked to stop the terrorist leader. However, Islamabad views Afridi as a traitor who colluded with a foreign intelligence agency in an illegal operation on Pakistani soil.
Afridi ran a vaccination campaign on behalf of the CIA to collect blood samples of bin Laden’s family at a compound in Abbottabad where US commandos killed the al-Qaeda leader last year in May. The samples were intended to help the US match the family’s DNA to verify his presence in the garrison city.
Afridi’s older brother Jamil and two lawyers representing the doctor said at a news conference in the frontier city of Peshawar that they will appeal the verdict, which was handed down last week in a tribal court whose proceedings were never made public.
“This was a one-sided decision,” Jamil said. “All allegations against him are false. He didn’t do anything against the national interest.”
Afridi was tried under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), the set of laws that govern Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal region. The FCR do not allow suspects to have legal representation, present material evidence or cross-examine witnesses. Verdicts are handled by a government official in consultation with a council of elders, instead of by a judge.
The raid by American commandos to capture bin Laden infuriated Pakistani officials who were not told ahead of time or of the CIA operation in their country to track him down. Afridi was arrested in the weeks after the raid and convicted and sentenced last week for conspiring against the state.
The lawyers said authorities have not given them documents related to the case, including a copy of the verdict.
Afridi’s brother said the doctor had a US visa and that he stayed in Pakistan after the bin Laden raid for 20 days.
“Had he been guilty, he would have escaped,” Jamil Afridi said.
He did not comment on whether he thought his brother should have helped the US.
The case puts the family in a delicate situation. Anti-American sentiment is widespread in Pakistan, and people who are viewed as supporting the US are sometimes targeted by militants, especially in the tribal areas.
In his first comments on Afridi’s conviction, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called Afridi’s actions a “serious offense,” but said he had the right to a fair trial.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Sunday criticized Pakistan over Afridi’s conviction and sentencing, calling it “disturbing.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia