Doctor who helped US find Osama 'won't be freed'

A Pakistani doctor who was 'recruited by the CIA' to help find Osama bin Laden will be not released from jail or handed to the United States, Pakistan's law minister told legislators.

Dr Shakil Afridi was arrested after US forces killed bin Laden in May 2011 in a secret raid in a northern Pakistani town. He was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign by Pakistan in which he collected DNA samples to help the CIA confirm bin Laden's identity.

The Pakistan Senate was informed on Tuesday that although Afridi was a hero for the US, he was a culprit for Pakistan.

In 2012, Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison after being convicted of being a member of militant group Lashkar-e-Islam. That conviction was overturned in 2013, but Afridi was then charged with murder, relating to the death of a patient eight years earlier. He remains in jail awaiting trial.

"Afridi worked against the law and our national interest, and the Pakistan government has repeatedly been telling the United States that under our law he committed a crime and was facing the law," the Daily Times newspaper quoted Law Minister Zahid Hamid.

Pakistan joined the US war on militancy after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But Washington often describes Islamabad as an unreliable partner that has sheltered the Afghan Taliban leadership, demanding tougher action against militant groups based along its border with Afghanistan.