Newly released documents seized in the 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden's compound show bin Laden had ordered al-Qaida to assassinate President Barack Obama or General David Petraeus. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
Updated at 8:18 a.m. ET: PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A Pakistani doctor accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden was convicted of high treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison on Wednesday.
Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the American intelligence agency to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad, where he was killed last May by U.S. commandos.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has previously called for Afridi to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests.
Afridi was also ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500, Nasir Khan, a government official in the Khyber tribal area, told The Associated Press. If he doesn't pay, he will spend another three and half years in prison, Khan said.
Obama aides gave classified information on bin Laden raid for film, watchdog says
His imprisonment is likely to anger ally Washington at a sensitive time, with both sides engaged in difficult talks over re-opening NATO supply routes to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.
Panetta: Pakistan doctor gave US key bin Laden intel
U.S. officials had hoped Pakistan, a recipient of billions of dollars in American aid, would release Afridi. He was detained after the unilateral operation which killed bin Laden and strained ties with Islamabad.
Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images
U.S. forces found and killed the al-Qaida leader in the affluent Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where he had been living in a large compound.
Report: CIA ran vaccine ruse to get bin Laden's DNA
In January, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a television interview that Afridi and his team had been key in finding bin Laden, describing him as helpful and insisting the doctor had not committed treason or harmed Pakistan.
NBC News' Mushtaq Yusufzai, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- 'Nearly empty': A rare glimpse inside Syria rebel stronghold
- Terror suspect's eye color? UK's flying cameras know
- Analysis: How Egypt's election can transform the Middle East
- Portraits of a queen: When the monarch becomes the subject
- Tokyo Sky Tree takes root as world's second-tallest structure
- Robotic 'fish' takes to seas to catch pollution sooner
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
0 comments:
Post a Comment