Five years on, bin Laden doctor languishes in Pakistan jail

A newspaper bears the photograph of Pakistani surgeon Shakeel Afridi, recruited by the CIA to help find Osama bin Laden, at a newsstand in Karachi on May 24, 2012. - AFP/file

Peshawar (Pakistan) (AFP) - Five years after his fake vaccination programme helped the CIA track and kill Osama bin Laden, Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi languishes in jail, abandoned by the US, say supporters, in its bid to smooth troubled relations with Islamabad.

Afridi, believed to be in his mid-50s, has no access to a lawyer, and his appeal against a 23-year prison sentence has stalled.