Health workers in CIA's bin Laden plot reinstated

Abbottabad, Pakistan (AP) — A defense lawyer says a Pakistani court has reinstated 17 health workers who were fired last year for allegedly participating in a CIA scheme to confirm the presence of Osama bin Laden in a town in northwest Pakistan.

Lawyer Javed Awan says Thursday's court order came 11 months after the health workers were suspended for failing to inform the government about Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi's fake polio vaccination program.

The health workers say they didn't know Afridi was working for CIA to run a polio campaign in Abbottabad where bin Laden was later killed in a U.S. raid.

Afridi was sentenced to more than three decades in prison for ties to militants. But it is widely believed that he was punished as he helped CIA track down bin Laden.