Pakistan may free doctor who helped CIA track Osama Bin Laden

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Pakistan moved closer to releasing an imprisoned doctor who had helped the CIA track Osama bin Laden after the country's spy chief flew to the US to try to rescue intelligence ties between Washington and Islamabad.

The official position towards Dr Shakil Afridi, the subject of weeks of high-level negotiations between the countries, seemed to have softened as a senior Pakistani official said that he may not have known he was working for the CIA.

"If it is confirmed that he did not deal with Americans and didn't know he was working for the CIA, he didn't break any laws," the official said. "He also did not spy on Pakistan or violate the official secrets act. So there may be no reason to charge him … if he was misled and did not know he was working indirectly for a foreign intelligence service."

The Guardian revealed this week that Afridi had been recruited by the CIA to try to obtain a DNA sample from the house in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan, where it was suspected that Bin Laden lived. Washington fears for the safety of Afridi, who has been in the custody of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency since late May, and may have been tortured.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/13/pakistan-bin-laden-hunt-doctor-free