Doctor who helped find bin Laden jailed

Shakil Afridi was also ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500 (£2,200), said Nasir Khan, a government official in the Khyber tribal area where he was tried.

If Afridi doesn’t pay, he will spend another 42 months in prison.

Afridi ran a vaccination programme for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden’s presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad, where he was killed last May by US commandos.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for him to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests.

The conviction comes at a sensitive time because the US is already frustrated by Pakistan’s refusal to reopen Nato supply routes to Afghanistan. The supply routes were closed six months ago in retaliation for American air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Afridi was tried under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, the laws that govern Pakistan’s tribal region which fall far short of most Western legal practices. There is no right to legal representation, to present material evidence or cross-examine witnesses. Verdicts are normally handed down by an official in consultation with a council of government elders.

Afridi has the right to appeal against the verdict, said Iqbal Khan, another Khyber government official. He was detained some time after the raid on May 2 last year.

“He was working for a foreign spy agency. We are looking after our national interests,” said a Pakistani intelligence official.