Campaigning to free a hero: Bob Lorsch on Dr. Shakil Afridi
Currently on a hunger strike, the man that helped us find Bin Laden is facing a sentence for treason.
On May 2, 2011, Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was raided by Navy SEALS and the world’s most wanted terrorist was killed. The United States rejoiced, but meanwhile the man who provided the US with definitive proof of Bin Laden’s location, Dr. Shakil Afridi, was arrested by the Pakistani intelligence forces and accused of treason. Since then, he has been all but forgotten by the American public.
After learning about Dr. Afridi, businessman and philanthropist Bob Lorsch teamed up with his wife Kira to call awareness to Afridi’s plight with the hope that enough public outcry would force the US government to take action to help get the doctor released.
In an interview on Frank Gaffney’s Secure Freedom Radio on the second anniversary of the Bin Laden raid, Mr. Lorsch condemns the “putative retribution” that Dr. Afridi is facing “for doing nothing more than finding the most dangerous terrorist in the world and probably saving thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives.”
The Lorschs’ campaign is attracting support from some high-ranking people, including Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, but Afridi’s situation is not improving, and he continues to be the victim of a seemingly corrupt judicial system.
“He is a prisoner in a dungeon in a remote area of Pakistan who has not seen his family or any friends or his attorney in months. Currently I understand he’s in a hunger strike.”
“Last week on April 25th there was a hearing scheduled where they were supposed to have reviewed ten months of appeals testimony in order to let the guy hopefully go free,” said Lorsch. “Immediately before the hearing [the Pakistani intelligence force] took the judge who had been handling the case… and moved him to another remote part of Pakistan and brought in a new judge. On April 25th, that judge heard the defense side of the case and promised to rule on the case today—which would be last night—in Pakistan, which would allow the prosecution to bring their case. And the rumor was there was a likelihood that Afridi could be freed.”
Hopes were dashed when early this morning Mr. Lorsch was informed that “the judge got busy, so he will leave Afridi to rot, on his hunger strike, in his cell.” The hearing was rescheduled for June 13th.
LISTEN to the interview on Secure Freedom Radio.
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