Pak tribunal to announce Osama doc Shakil Afridi’s retrial verdict on December 18

Islamabad – Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) tribunal has said it would announce the verdict on the case of Dr Shakil Afridi on December 18.

The decision was taken after hearing the arguments of both the prosecution and the defence, Dawn News reports.

Afridi, who is a physician by profession, was accused of assisting the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in obtaining DNA samples of slain Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden through a fake vaccination campaign.

He was sentenced in May 2012 for 33 years for involvement in anti-state activities, but his sentence was overturned in August 2013 and a retrial was ordered.