Shakil Afridi ‘in poor health’

Afridi's health condit­ion is bad, a team of doctor­s will examin­e him in jail today, says jail offici­al.


Afp May 24, 2012
Shakil Afridi ‘in poor health’

PESHAWAR: Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, sentenced to 33 years for treason after being recruited by the CIA to help find Osama bin Laden is in poor health, a jail official told AFP on Thursday.

“His health condition is bad, a team of doctors will examine him in jail today,” Samad Khan told AFP from the central prison in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where officials have said Afridi is being held.

“He has been kept away from other prisoners to avert any danger to his life,” Khan said, without elaborating further on Afridi’s condition.

On Wednesday, officials announced that the surgeon had been convicted and jailed for 33 years under the archaic tribal justice system that has governed Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt since British colonial rule.

A court operating under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), which date back to the 19th century, found him guilty of waging war against the state.

Afridi comes from Khyber, one of the seven districts that make up the tribal belt.

But critics said he should not have been tried under tribal law for an alleged crime that took place outside tribal jurisdiction, in the town of Abbottabad where he ran a fake vaccination programme designed to collect Bin Laden family DNA.

A senior official in Khyber, Nasir Khan, defended Afridi's trial.

“We have powers to try a resident of FATA under the FCR enforced in tribal areas,” he told AFP.

COMMENTS (39)

iftikhar hussain | 12 years ago | Reply

@ijazmir: what so ever the state is, we love our country with a faith that it will sustain the current pressure and will come up some day with all bright colours the world can have.

ijazmir | 12 years ago | Reply @Iftikhar Which Pakistan you are living.? In these days no foreign power comes and invade and make you slave. You become slave under the economic power. At this point real Pakistan is Slave of United States Of America. Budget of Pakistan can not sustain for two weeks.
VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ