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Pakistan sentenced a doctor to 33 years in jail for helping America to find Bin Laden.
Jailed CIA informant in poor health - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The Pakistani doctor sentenced to 33 years' prison for treason after being recruited by the CIA to help find Osama bin Laden is in poor health, a jail official says.
Shakeel Afridi confessed to helping the CIA confirm bin Laden was living in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
The doctor conducted a fake polio vaccination drive to obtain DNA samples from the residents of the compound, where the Al Qaeda figurehead was killed last year.
It is believed the DNA was then tested to see if it belonged to members of bin Laden's family.
Afridi has been jailed under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), a tribal justice system which date back to the 19th century, found him guilty of waging war against the state.
Officials have said Afridi is being held at the central prison in the north-western city of Peshawar.
"His health condition is bad, a team of doctors will examine him in jail today," jail official Samad Khan said.
"He has been kept away from other prisoners to avert any danger to his life."
Afridi comes from Khyber, one of the seven districts that makes up the tribal belt.
Critics say he should not have been tried under tribal law for an alleged crime, but a senior official in Khyber, Nasir Khan, defended Afridi's trial.
"We have powers to try a resident of FATA (the federally administered tribal areas) under the FCR enforced in tribal areas," he said.
"The trial was kept secret so that no one can attack him.
"We did not reveal even the name of the jirga members to avoid any risk."
There have been conflicting accounts about whether Afridi was present during the proceedings.
Under the FCR, cases are heard by a five to seven-member jirga, or council of tribal elders, along with two officials from the local political administration, Mr Khan said.
He said Afridi's trial lasted two months and that he was given full opportunity to defend himself, but was not entitled to a lawyer.
Afridi's punishment was meted out under the Pakistani penal code, Mr Khan said.
He has the right to appeal either to a tribunal or directly to the Peshawar high court, which has in several cases either remitted or annulled tribal sentences, he added.
The tribunal is made up of three former senior civil servants.
Jailed CIA informant in poor health - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)