PESHAWAR, June 1: The sentencing of Dr Shakil Afridi to 33 years rigorous imprisonment by a tribal area court over links with a banned militant outfit was challenged before the Frontier Crimes Regulation’s commissioner on Friday.

Jamil Afridi field an appeal against the sentence on his convicted brother, saying the court passed an impugned conviction order on mere surmises and conjectures and therefore, it should be dismissed and the appellant acquitted.

Dr Afridi, a former agency surgeon, was picked up allegedly by an intelligence agency in May last year on suspicion of helping CIA trace Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad by running a fake vaccination campaign.

He was shifted to the Peshawar Central Prison on May 23 after his conviction by the assistant political agent of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency.

Dr Afridi is kept in solitary confinement, where he is denied meeting with his brother and lawyers. That’s why Jamil filed the appeal on his brother’s behalf.

“We have to file the instant appeal through brother of Dr Afridi as under FCR an appeal could be filed by a convict within a month of his conviction by the political agent or assistant political agent,” said Samiullah Afridi, one of the five lawyers in the panel providing legal assistance to the convicted surgeon.

He said under Section 48 of FCR, an appeal had to be filed with the FCR commissioner and in the Dr Afridi case, the commissioner of Peshawar division, Tariq Jamil, had the powers of the FCR commissioner.

Mr Jamil later told reporters that his brother was innocent and was made a scapegoat as everyone knew that his brother had no links with Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-i-Islam. He said he and lawyers were denied meeting with Dr Afridi. He said his brother had no association with the militant outfit whose members never sat or gathered in his office nor were they associated with him.

The appeal said: “According to the impugned order, the appellant was arrested on May 23, 2011, and was handed over back to the trial court on May 11, 2012. It is not known as to where and with whom the appellant was detained.”

It further said: “The lower court relied on the report of investigating agency while passing the impugned order. Under the law the reports of investigating officers have no legal value and therefore, the order on the basis of such investigation reports is illegal.”

The appeal added that the appellant had no links with Lashkar-i-Islam and in fact he was kidnapped by the said organization in 2008 and his brother and friends were forced to pay Rs1 million for his release, so the allegations extending financial assistance of two million rupees to the said organisation were false and baseless.

It also said the lower court being a magistrate of first class had the powers to convict a person up to seven years imprisonment but Dr Afridi was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment which was beyond the powers/jurisdiction of the APA/additional district magistrate and therefore, the order was not sustainable under the law.

The appeal said Dr Afridi was convicted though a local jirga called by the lower court failed to produce any hard evidence against him.