ISLAMABAD – Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track and kill Osama binLaden has been moved by authorities from a prison in the country’snorthwest to an unknown safer location, an official and family member saidFriday.
link>Shakil Afridi has beenlanguishing in a prison in the city of Peshawar for almost seven yearsafter his fake vaccination programme helped US agents track and kill theAl-Qaeda leader.
A top prison official in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince, of which Peshawar is the main town, told AFP that Afridi wasmoved by intelligence officials to the safer place late Thursday.
When asked the reasons behind moving the doctor, the official told AFP, “Iwas informed in writing that they are moving him due to security reasons”.
Jamil Afridi, the doctor’s brother, confirmed to AFP that he had beeninformed by government officials that “Shakil has been moved to a saferplace”.
Afridi was sentenced to jail for 33 years in May 2012 after he wasconvicted of ties to militants, a charge he has always denied.
Some US lawmakers said the case was revenge for his help in the search forthe Al-Qaeda chief.
Afridi, a former senior surgeon believed to be in his mid-50s, had beenliving in solitary confinement in a small room in Peshawar’s Central Jail,his lawyer Qamar Nadim told AFP.
In 2016, a US threat to cut aid to Pakistan saw a tribunal slice 10 yearsoff his sentence — but since then US pressure for his release has taperedoff.
US President Donald Trump vowed during his election campaign that he wouldorder Pakistan to free Afridi.
“I’m sure they would let them (him) out. Because we give a lot of aidto Pakistan,” Trump told Fox News at the time, adding that Pakistan “takesadvantage like everybody else”.
The comments sparked a blistering rebuttal from Pakistan, whose interiorminister at the time branded Trump “ignorant” and stated the “governmentof Pakistan and not Donald Trump” would decide Afridi’s fate. – APP/AFP