The United States has said it can't verify the authenticity of the interview given by the imprisoned Pakistani physician, who helped CIA trace Osama bin Laden, to an American news channel, but noted that the allegations if found correct are extremely "concerning".
"We can't at this point verify the authenticity of the interview. If we do find that it's authentic, though, then the allegations would be extremely concerning," the State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference yesterday.
Nuland was responding to questions with regard to an interview given by Dr Shakeel Afridi to Fox News channel, in which the Pakistani doctor has made serious allegations of physical abuse and torture; besides that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been supporting terrorist outfits as a "matter of policy" and that the spy agency considers America as its main "threat".
"Pakistan obviously has international human rights obligations, including under the Convention Against Torture, and we would expect that the people and the Government of Pakistan would be interested in investigating such claims by Dr Afridi if, in fact, it turns out that this tape is authentic. But at this point, I can't verify," Nuland said when asked about the interview.
The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been extremely outspoken on this case for many, many months and has called the sentence "unjust and unwarranted," she said.
"And we continue to do that at all levels," the US official said.