A Pakistani court sentenced Wednesday the doctor accused of helping the United States catch Osama bin Laden to 33 years in jail, a Pakistani official said.

Shakeel Afridi was sentenced under treason laws and fined $3,500, the New York Times said. 

He was found guilty of acting against the state, said Mutahir Zeb Khan, the administrator for the Khyber tribal region.  Sent to Central Prison in Peshawar, Afridi may appeal the verdict but not the sentence.

The doctor had been charged under a British-era regulation for crimes that does not carry the death penalty for treason – unlike the national criminal code.  Under Pakistani penal law, Afridi almost certainly would have received the death penalty, a Pakistani lawyer said.

He was arrested after bin Laden was killed by U. S. special forces last May, the New York Daily News said.  Pakistani security officials said he admitted to helping the C.I.A.

The United States, who said Afridi had helped find the world’s most wanted man, has lobbied for Pakistan to free him.

“The doctor was never asked to spy on Pakistan,” said a senior American official with knowledge of counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda in Pakistan.  “He was asked only to help locate Al Qaeda terrorists, who threaten Pakistan and the U.S.  He helped save Pakistani and American lives.”

Obama administration officials expressed anger and frustration at the tribal court’s decision, but indicated that American officials were working quietly behind the scenes to shorten the sentence or appeal it altogether, the Times said.