Pak court accepts review petition of jailed doctor who helped CIA track down Osama

A Pakistani court on Monday accepted the review petition of Dr Shakeel Afridi, a surgeon who helped America's CIA track down then al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2011, against his over two decades long sentence.

A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court comprising Justice Abdul Shukur and Justice Ejaz Noor accepted Afridi's review petition, BBC Urdu reported.

Afridi, a 57-year-old former surgeon of Khyber Agency, had run a false vaccination campaign in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad to help the CIA track down Osama, who was then killed in a covert US raid on May 2, 2011. Afridi was arrested from Peshawar later that year.

Initially, he was accused of organising a fake immunization campaign for the CIA to confirm presence of then al-Qaeda chief but later awarded 33 years sentence on multiple charges of anti-state activities, including extending support to militant outfits. His sentence was later reduced to 23 years.

Afridi has been engaged in a legal battle since his ...