Pakistan: 33 years in Jail is the Cost to help catch Osama Bin Laden

Dr. Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who helped CIA in tracking down Osama Bin Laden has been sent to jail for 33 years by a tribal court in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday.

In addition to this he was fined $3,500 or three and half years in prison (if he cannot pay it). He has been sent to the Central Prison in Peshawar. Court has convicted him for treason and plotting against the country.

He was tried under FCR (Frontier Crimes Regulations) an archaic British-era regulation for National crime and is governed by Pakistan's self-governing tribal region.

This has increased the tension between USA and Pakistan as the US officials are not happy with the decision and believe that the doctor is a Hero and not a traitor. They said that he helped in catching a terrorist and not conspire against his country.

Shakib ran a vaccination program for CIA to collect DNA to verify Osama's presence though he failed to collect blood but managed to get a telephone number of Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (who was Osama's trusted courier). This confirmed his presence in the compound in Abbottabad.

Shakib (48) was held up by Pakistan's intelligence agency near Peshawar few weeks after the death of bin Laden.

In May 2011, U.S. commandos raided the Abbottabad compound and killed Osama.