US links issuance of $33m aid to Dr Shakil Afridi's release

[pkuser2k12]

US links issuance of $33m aid to Dr Shakil Afridi's release


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January 17, 2014



WASHINGTON - Stepping up its pressure, the United States is asking Pakistan to release Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the CIA track drown Osama bin Laden , or give up $33 million from the annual aid it receives from Washington.


The bill to fund the US government binds the Obama administration to withhold $33 million, $1 million for each year of his sentence, from the funds meant for Pakistan.


The fund will be withheld “until the Secretary of State reports to Congress that Dr Shakil Afridi has been released from prison and cleared of all charges relating to the assistance provided to the United States in locating Laden.”


The CIA paid Dr Afridi to run a vaccination programme in Abbottabad in March and April 2011, as cover for an intelligence operation to establish that Bin Laden and his family were living in a large three-storey house in the town.


Dr Afridi, who was arrested in May 2011, was sentenced to 33 years in jail a year later by a court in the Khyber tribal agency for an entirely different offence - his alleged links to a banned militant group. But in August a court overturned the ruling, citing procedural errors and ordered a retrial.


Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Abbottabad in May 2011. His killing soured US-Pakistani relations as Pakistan saw the operation as a violation of its sovereignty.


In addition to the move to slash $33 million, Congress has also set aside clear benchmarks for Pakistan to fight terrorism. It has warned Islamabad that failure to curb terrorism could lead to the suspension of US assistance.


The suggested measures are included in a trillion-dollar spending bill Congress approved on Tuesday to fund the government for the remainder of the current fiscal year.



SOURCE:


THE NATION


Release Dr Afridi or forego $33m in aid

@Leader @Jazzbot @chauvunist @RangerPK @Jzaib @Zarvan

@Slav Defence @mafiya @Peaceful Civilian @ice_man @Side-Winder @jaibi @ajpirzada

@Spring Onion @F.O.X @forcetrip​

 

[pkuser2k12]

Release Shakil Afridi for Aid: US lawmakers-17 Jan 2014

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[Jazzbot]

NS gonna hand him over just like Raymond Davis, anyone wanna bet?

 

[nangyale]

Bin Laden raid: Doctor's sentence cut by 10 years

Shakil Afridi was convicted on charges of helping a militant group

A jail sentence handed down to the doctor alleged to have helped the US track down Osama Bin Laden in 2011 has been reduced by 10 years by a Pakistani court.

Shakil Afridi is accused by Pakistan of running a fake vaccination programme to help confirm Bin Laden's presence in the northern town of Abbottabad.

His original 33-year term on an unrelated charge was widely seen as punishment for his alleged role.

Bin Laden was killed in a US raid.

Special forces entered the al-Qaeda leader's compound and shot him before flying the body out of Pakistan and burying it at sea.

The raid was acutely embarrassing for Pakistan, which was not informed in advance, and the episode plunged relations with Washington to a new low.

A tribal areas court convicted Afridi in May 2012 of treason on charges of links to a militant group.

A court in the city of Peshawar cut his sentence on Saturday to 23 years following appeals from his relatives and the US.

Afridi's lawyer, Qamar Nadeem, said the conviction was upheld, but another charge, that of waging war with Pakistan, had been dropped.

Mr Nadeem raised the possibility of a further appeal to a higher tribal court as relatives are demanding a fresh trial, as ordered by officials last August.

Afridi is said to have helped the CIA by setting up a sham hepatitis vaccination programme to pinpoint Bin Laden's compound. Through his lawyers, he has denied assisting the CIA.

The BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says Afridi's case has carried undertones of realpolitik from the start and few people believed in the credibility of the conviction for collaborating with a banned militant group

 

[batmannow]

NS gonna hand him over just like Raymond Davis, anyone wanna bet?

it all is going to happen with full agreement between IMRAN & NAWAZ, if not tell me the date, when PTI is going to start dharna against his release?