Dr. Shakeel Afridi got the title of hero in the United States of America, but he was classified as a traitor in Pakistan, and he paid a heavy price for his role in tracking down and killing Osama bin Laden 10 years ago.

This doctor organized a fake hepatitis C vaccination campaign, and by that he helped the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) locate bin Laden in Abbottabad (northern Pakistan), where US special forces killed the leader of Al Qaeda on May 2. / May 2011.

Since then, Afridi has been imprisoned in solitary confinement in Punjab (central Pakistan), and to this day nothing suggests that the Pakistani judiciary will one day acquit him.

"Let's be clear, Afridi paid the highest price for the attack on Osama bin Laden, he became a scapegoat," said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia department at the Wilson Center in Washington.

According to statements made by his brother and his lawyer to the French press, the authorities did not allow the imprisoned doctor to speak to anyone other than his family and his lawyer.

Jamil Afridi, brother of Shaquille (Reuters)

His family says that he wanders around his cell, which is two meters in length and width, to maintain his physical health, as well as exercises from time to time, and he has a Qur’an, but he is not allowed to have any other books.

His beard was sometimes shaved during the week in the presence of a guard, but he was not allowed any contact with other prisoners.

His family members can visit him twice a month, but they must remain behind an iron gate and cannot speak to him in "pashto" (their mother tongue).

Role not clear

The doctor - who hails from the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan - had the advantage of mastering the Pashto language to assist informants who were approaching bin Laden's hideout.

The "CIA" did not need more than physical evidence of bin Laden's existence, so it asked Shaquille Afridi to launch a vaccination campaign to obtain a DNA sample of a person living in that house.

It was not clear what role the doctor played in determining bin Laden's identity, but Pakistani authorities arrested him a few weeks later.

He was not found guilty of the killing of bin Laden, but was sentenced to 33 years in prison for financing an extremist group under a vague colonial-era law.

Sami Allah Afridi (center), Shakeel Afridi's lawyer, before he was killed by gunmen (Reuters)

Successive US administrations protested the fate of Dr. Shaquille, and over the years raised the possibility of a prisoner exchange, but no agreement was reached.

Hussain Haqqani - who in 2011 was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States - told the French press that he is "imprisoned today with one goal; to give a lesson to every Pakistani who cooperates with a Western intelligence agency."

"Instead of telling the truth about bin Laden's presence in Pakistan, the authorities made Dr. Afridi pay the price," he added.

An unforgivable crime

The intervention in Abbottabad - where bin Laden was killed - left deep scars in relations with the United States.

It was considered an insult to the Pakistanis.

"When someone works with a foreign intelligence service, it is an unforgivable crime," said the former head of the Pakistani intelligence service, Asad Drani.

Explaining that Afridi’s arrest spared death by people’s killing.

Even after 10 years, Afridi's legacy is still tangible in Pakistan, as the ruse used by the US intelligence services undermined confidence in the vaccination campaigns in the country, as many families still refused to vaccinate their children against diseases such as polio.

Over the past year, dozens of vaccination workers have been killed, and they are still being attacked.