Pakistan to deport Osama bin Laden's family
Osama bin Laden's three widows and their nine children are scheduled to be deported to Saudi Arabia around midnight Tuesday, almost a year after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaeda chief at a compound in northwest Pakistan, their lawyer said.
The family was detained by Pakistani authorities immediately after the pre-dawn raid on May 2 in Abbottabad. The American commandos left them behind but took bin Laden's body, which they later buried at sea.
The relatives were interrogated by Pakistani officials and eventually charged last month with illegally entering and living in the country. They were convicted on April 2 and sentenced to 45 days in prison, with credit for about a month served. Their prison term, which was spent at a well-guarded house in Islamabad, ends Tuesday.
Pakistani officials have said very little publicly about the family, raising questions about why they were kept in detention for so long. Some speculated Pakistan was worried information from the widows would point to some level of official assistance in hiding bin Laden. The compound in Abbottabad where he lived for six years was about a kilometre from one of Pakistan's main military academies.
The lawyer for bin Laden's family, Mohammed Amir Khalil, told The Associated Press that they were scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia around midnight Tuesday.