Peshawar - Lawyers representing the Pakistani doctor
jailed after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden appealed against his
conviction on Friday.
Shakeel Afridi was on 23 May sentenced to
33 years in jail under Pakistan's archaic system of tribal justice,
worsening Pakistan's already precarious relationship with the United
States.
He was arrested after US troops killed Bin Laden in May
2011 in the town of Abbottabad, where he set up a fake vaccination
programme in the hope of obtaining DNA samples to identify the al-Qaeda
leader.
But he was convicted for treason over alleged ties to
militant group Lashkar-e-Islam and not for working for the CIA, for
which the court said it did not have jurisdiction.
The appeal,
filed by his brother Jamil Afridi through lawyers, said the allegations
were "false, concocted and without foundation".
It said Afridi
had "no association" with Lashkar-e-Islam and said the conviction should
be dismissed because he had no opportunity of defence or fair trial,
said a copy obtained by AFP.
Fined by militants
Lashkar-e-Islam,
led by warlord Mangal Bagh, is widely feared for kidnappings and
extortion in the tribal district of Khyber, where Afridi worked for
years.
The appeal said Afridi was kidnapped by Lashkar-e-Islam in 2008 and ordered to pay one million rupees $10 660.
The
court said Afridi paid about $21 320 to the faction and helped to
provide medical assistance to militant commanders in Khyber.
The
militants have denied any links to Afridi, saying they fined him for
over-charging patients, and have threatened to kill him.
The
Peace Movement, a civil society group that has taken up Afridi's case,
said the appeal was filed to the commissioner of the north-western city
of Peshawar, who hears appeals against judgements meted out under
Pakistan's tribal justice system.
- SAPA