US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday denounced as “unjust and unwarranted” the treatment of a Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi, who was jailed for 33 years for helping in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
A tribal court in Khyber Agency on Wednesday convicted Shakeel Afridi of treason after he agreed to have collected DNA for US intelligence to verify the presence of the most-wanted al Qaeda leader. “We regret both the fact that he was convicted and the severity of his sentence,” Clinton told a joint press conference with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully.
The chief US diplomat said Afridi’s role “was instrumental in taking down one of the world’s most wanted murderers. That was clearly in Pakistan’s interest, as well as ours and the rest of the world’s”.
Afridi ran a fake vaccination program designed to collect bin Laden family DNA from the compound in Abbottabad, where the al Qaeda leader was shot dead in a US commando raid in May 2011.
The doctor’s actions “to help bring about the end of the reign of terror designed and executed by bin Laden was not in any way a betrayal of Pakistan”, Clinton said.
“We are raising his case and we will continue to do so because we think that his treatment is unjust and unwarranted,” she said.
Her remarks were stronger than those given on Wednesday by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland who said Pakistan had “no basis for Dr Afridi to be held”.
Clinton also said the doctor’s fate was among “the many issues important to the United States and the international community” that the US was discussing with Pakistan’s leaders.
US lawmakers registered their own displeasure over Afridi’s sentencing, moving yesterday to cut military aid to Islamabad.
Senator John Kerry said Afridi’s sentencing will be hard for people in the US to understand or bear.
“Americans will have great difficulty knowing that one year after the United States found and killed the most notorious terrorist in modern history hiding on Pakistani soil, the most visible action being taken to find out how he came to be in Pakistan is the conviction in a Pakistani court of the physician who helped the United States identify Osama bin Laden,” he said.
"… one year after the United States found and killed the most notorious terrorist in modern history hiding on Pakistani soil, the most visible action being taken …"
Does Pakistan have an answer?
If this government does, it should bloody well speak up. Millions of Pakistanis are affronted and shamed by the whole saga and want someone to restore our honour.
This Government is not familiar with the concept of honour, so it should read up on it and take lessons in it
plzz get your facts straight….Afia deserved it but yes in our courts….she’s a fanatic and was totally involved….we can talk here abt the so many muslim and pakistani students interrogated over the years just coz of their background….now that is unjust dont you think hillary?….first lets talk abt those and then we come to this shall we
Unjustified , unwarranted !!!! ? So was Aafia Siddiqui's conviction and hundred of others. Pakistan simply replaced a "a New-York Federal Judge" with a political agent of FATA?PATA.
and that of Ms. Aafia Siddiqi?
Says the yanks who gave 17 years to a Muslim student last month, for translating some books into English!!
Respected Ms. Hillary Clinton !
What is your input regarding Dr. Aafia Siddiqui conviction ??
plzz get your facts straight….Afia deserved it but yes in our courts….she's a fanatic and was totally involved….we can talk here abt the so many muslim and pakistani students interrogated over the years just coz of their background….now that is unjust dont you think hillary?….first lets talk abt those and then we come to this shall we
Is spying justified if done for Super Power???Keep an eye on traitors who are exploiting the freedom of speech.
Release Dr. Aafia and get your Shakeel Afridi.
Such type of actions by Pakistan are bringing shame to Pakistanis in other countries. That is why they do not claim to be Pakistanis abroad. They introduce themselves as Indians This is true for majority of Pakistanis abroad.
Dr.Afridi did a favour not only to Pakistan but to the whole world! What did we owe to OBL. He is still responsible for all the death and destruction going on in Pakistan. What
was Dr .Afridis motive for doing this.?
It does not appear to be money or is it.? Pakistan seems to always in a confrontatational mode which belies commonsense. I remember many years ago when Saddam Hussein was confronting USA his portraits used to decorate the buses . Similar was the case with Brother Gaddafi .Where are they now!. Similar is the situation with OBL A paranoid Moslem .Why did he not wreck havoc in his own country rather than choose Pakistan and Afghanistan for his deeds. Well done Dr Afridi . You don.t deserve this!
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