Treason sentence overturned for Pakistani doctor who aided bin Laden hunt

A Pakistani judge has overturned the sentence of a doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden and was handed a jail term of 33 years in prison for treason. Shakil Afridi’s case has proved a source of tension between the Pakistan and the U.S., which withheld $33 million in aid for Pakistan in retaliation.  

U.S. officials have hailed Afridi as a hero for helping pinpoint the fugitive al-Qaeda leader's location before the secret May 2011 raid by U.S. special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after more than a decade of searching.

Judicial official Sahibzada Mohammad Anees ordered a new trial on the grounds that another official had exceeded his authority when handing down last year's sentence. Afridi remains in custody.

"The assistant political agent ... did not have the authority to award 33 years' imprisonment to Dr. Shakil Afridi," said the written judgment. "The assistant political agent played the role of a magistrate for which he was not authorised."

A political agent and his assistant are representatives of the Pakistani government in the tribal areas, which are not covered by the country's judicial system.

Afridi was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign, in which he collected DNA samples, that is believed to have helped the American intelligence agency track down bin Laden in a compound in Abottabad, just north of the country's capital. The DNA helped the CIA establish that bin Laden was indeed living there.

U.S. officials were strongly critical of the sentence at the time.

"Without commenting on specific individuals, anyone who helped the United States find bin Laden was working against al-Qaeda and not against Pakistan," said Pentagon spokesman George Little after Afridi’s original sentencing.

But reports subsequent to Afridi's conviction contradicted the notion that his ties to the US had been the reason for his conviction. Court documents showed he was punished for his links to the banned group of armed fighters Lakshar-e-Islam, which operates in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber pass, where Afridi worked.

While the court document stated there was evidence that Afridi "has been shown acting with other foreign intelligence agencies", it noted the Khyber court that sentenced Afridi had no jurisdiction to act on that.

The sentence was handed down under tribal laws, which unlike the national penal code, do not carry the death penalty for treason.

"This appears to be an effort to patch things up with the United States, while also satisfying the people of Pakistan that Afridi has been punished," Mansur Mehsud, director for research at the FATA Research Centre, an independent think tank based in Islamabad, said after Afridi’s conviction.

"The mindset is being managed, confusion created, about what exactly he has done."

Afridi denied the charges and a spokesman for the group said they had no ties with him.

"Shakil was himself kidnapped by militants," Afridi's lawyer told Reuters. "He had to pay a lot of money for his release. There is no question that a person like him would treat militants or give them funds."

Afridi was the first person to be sentenced by Pakistani authorities in the bin Laden case.

Bin Laden's long presence in Pakistan -- he was believed to have stayed there for years -- despite the worldwide manhunt for him raised suspicions in Washington that Pakistani intelligence officials may have sheltered him.

Pakistani officials deny this and say an intelligence gap enabled bin Laden to live here undetected.  

Al Jazeera and wire services