Overturned: Commissioner orders re-trial of Dr Afridi

Tribal court verdict declared null and void.

PESHAWAR:

Ordering a re-trial, the Frontier Crimes Regulation Commissioner overturned the 33-year sentence of Dr Shakeel Afridi, who allegedly helped the United States in locating Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Dr Afridi was arrested after US troops captured and killed the al Qaeda leader bin Laden in May 2011. The doctor had set up a fake vaccination programme to obtain DNA samples to identify the al Qaeda leader.

FCR Commissioner Sahibzada Muhammad Anees announced the re-trial on Thursday after accepting Dr Afridi’s appeal application and hearing the prosecution and the defence. The political agent of the Khyber Agency would hold a new trial as sessions judge. The appeal, filed by Afridi’s brother Jamil, said the allegations were “false, concocted and without foundation”.

“The 33-year sentence given by the Bara, Khyber Agency assistant political agent (APA) was declared null and void and the case handed over to the political agent. In a week or two, the case would be given to him,” defence counsel Samiullah Afridi read the verdict to journalists.

He argued that APA was not authorised to pass the sentence, no proper trial was held and his client was not given an opportunity to defend himself.

The political agent, however, has the right to either sentence or acquit him, keeping in view the legal requirements, he added.

Lawyers Samiullah Afridi and Qamar Naveed recorded their statements representing Jamil, while advocate Iqbal Durrani represented the government.

“Dr Shakeel Afridi was sentenced on the first day of his trial under the APA court, which is outside the legal framework. Now the Khyber Agency political agent will decide whether he conducts the trial inside the Central Prison, Peshawar, or in Khyber House,” Samiullah said.

Dr Afridi, a resident of Khyber Agency, was sentenced under Pakistan Penal Code clauses related to offences against the state, conspiracy or attempt to wage war against the state, spying and allying with a foreign government against the state’s interests.

His lawyer, brother and other family members deny all allegations. The appeal, filed on June 1, 2012, said Afridi was kidnapped by Lashkar-e-Islam in 2008 and ordered to pay one million rupees.

Lashkar-e-Islam, led by warlord Mangal Bagh, is widely feared for kidnappings and extortion in Khyber, where Dr. Afridi had worked for years.

The tribal court had said in its verdict that he had paid two million rupees to the faction and helped in providing medical assistance to militant commanders.

Dr. Afridi has been in Central Prison, Peshawar, since he was sentenced.

The provincial health department had removed Dr Shakeel Afridi as Agency Surgeon, Khyber, and also suspended the lady health workers he had sought the help of during the fake vaccination programme. Later this year, the lady health workers were reinstated.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2013.