Pakistani official orders retrial of doctor who helped CIA find Osama bin Laden

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A senior judicial official has overturned the prison sentence of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden.

The official has also ordered the doctor’s retrial.

Government administrator Feroz Shah says the judicial official, Sahibzada Mohammad Anis, issued the ruling Thursday because the person who originally sentenced doctor Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison was not authorized to hear the case.

Afridi was convicted in May 2012 of conspiring with Islamic militants in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal area by giving them money and medical treatment.

Both Afridi’s family and the militants have denied the allegation.

Afridi was tried under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, the set of laws that govern Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal region. Anis, who ordered a retrial, is a commissioner under the regulations.