(Newser)
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The doctor who ran the fake vaccination scheme that helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden should be charged with high treason, an inquiry in Pakistan has recommended. If convicted, Shakil Afridi could be executed. The doctor was arrested by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency a few weeks after the raid that killed bin Laden. He has been held without access to a lawyer ever since, and there have been allegations that he was tortured, the Guardian reports.
American officials consider Afridi a hero, and they have urged Pakistan to release him into American custody so he can settle in the US with his family. The commission that recommended charges did so after interviewing the chief of the ISI, whose agency was humiliated by the covert American raid, AP notes. The commission also announced that it was lifting restrictions on three bin Laden widows and two daughters who have been in custody since the raid, clearing the way for their return to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
