"We are aware of the problems Dr Shakil faces inside prison. All concerns raised in the letter must be addressed," Dr Shakil Afridi’s lawyer Samiullah Afridi. PHOTO: AFP
Dr Shakil Afridi has written a letter to his lawyers demanding to meet them and his family members, and urging them to get his cell in prison changed.
In his letter, Dr Shakil claims being a BPS-19 officer he should be kept in a Class-B cell, however, he has been kept in inappropriate places inside the Peshawar Central Prison.
His letter stated that in the last meeting with the FATA Tribunal, he handed over a list of some belongings the police had confiscated when he was arrested which are yet to be returned.
“The police took away precious belongings during the arrest which have not been returned so far, and a list of the belongings was given to the tribunal in the last meeting. There is a need to carve out a legal way to get the belongings returned,” the letter read.
He has also claimed he should be allowed full opportunity to meet his lawyers to apprise them of developments inside the prison and discuss issues related to the case that has been made against him.
Dr Shakil is also not satisfied with security arrangements within the prison despite the fact the high-profile prisoner is being held in a separate cell isolated from other inmates. He urged his lawyers to take up the issue with the authorities concerned, so satisfactory security can be provided to him.
When contacted, Dr Shakil’s lawyer Samiullah Afridi said he found the letter inside his office when he returned from court and added it was written by his client who is behind bars at Peshawar Central Prison.
“We are aware of the problems Dr Shakil is facing inside the prison, and he has contacted Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary in this regard and submitted an application to get all issues ironed out. All concerns raised in the letter have legal backing and must be addressed,” said the lawyer.
Former Khyber Agency surgeon Dr Shakil Afridi was arrested in May 2011 for helping the US track down al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. He was later charged with supporting a militant organisation in May 2012 and sentenced to 33 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs320,000.
The late Frontier Crimes Regulations commissioner Sahibzada Muhammad Anis on August 29 overturned the 33-year sentence and remanded the case back to the political agent of Khyber Agency and directed him to conduct a retrial.
Later, Dr Shakil’s lawyers moved the FATA Tribunal by filing a review petition to seek fresh trials and new jirga members alongside a request that his client be allowed bail in the case.
Currently, the tribunal is hearing the case and has received Dr Shakil Afridi’s records after it had ordered the political agent to submit a compiled report on the accused in the last hearing. The hearing was supposed to be held on November 27, however, it could not be conducted due to a lawyers’ strike. The tribunal adjourned the hearing till December 9.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2013.
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Pigeon drones!
@Truth be told: Within minutes the Abbottabad operation ended, US authorites told him to leave Paksitan. His travel arrangements were already made and only he had to arrive at a certain point. Being a greedy person and greedy person is always stupid, he refused. He was expecting some reward from Pakistan government, therefore he prefered to stay. (I am not making it up, he bragged about it in his interview). He was arrested many days after Abbottabad operation, so he had ample time to disappear. Agencies started looking for him when his help was reported in American media.
He might even be rescued by a "foreign pigeon" piloted by GPS coordinates. Wow!! Way to Fly.