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Osama doc Afridi's re-trial postponed over security concerns after Peshawar terror attack

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ANI Washington

Pakistani doctor Dr. Shakil Afridi's, who helped the United States pin down most wanted militant Osama Bin Laden, trial was postponed until next month over security concerns following the Peshawar church blast.

According to Fox News, Afridi's defense wants to reset the entire trial as he believes the new judge is under the sway of Pakistan's notorious ISI spy agency.

Afridi has been in prison for more than two-and-a-half years now, after he was abducted by Pakistani officials in May 2011.

Afridi was convicted of conspiring with Islamic militants in Pakistan's Khyber tribal area by giving them money and medical treatment, the report added.

 

However, his imprisonment is believed to be the result of his collaboration with the U.S. for tracking Bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011.

A senior judicial official had overturned his 33-year prison sentence last month and ordered retrial claiming that the judge, who originally sentenced Afridi, was not authorized to hear his case.

Earlier, Pakistan was preparing a proposal to swap Afridi for a notorious female neuroscientist and suspected Al Qaeda operative, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, held at a federal prison in Texas.

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First Published: Sep 25 2013 | 3:13 PM IST

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