Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's three widows and children will be deported to their respective countries by mid-April after they complete their six-week sentences in Pakistan for illegally entering the country.
Their deportation was ordered by a Pakistani court on Monday which also sentenced his three widows and two adult daughters to 45 days in prison and fined them Rs.10,000 each. They have already served much of their prison sentences as the family members were formally arrested on March 3, exactly 10 months after they were rounded up following the U.S. raid on bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad. According to the family's lawyer, they have already paid the fine and now wait for the documents required to return to their native countries.
The hearing was held in the five-bedroom house that the Pakistan government has bought in Islamabad for the confinement of the family. The brother of his Yemeni widow, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, was present at the hearing. The youngest of the widows, Amal, is said to have been bin Laden's favourite and has disclosed considerable amount of details on his life on the run after he escaped into Pakistan from Afghanistan.
Her disclosures to the police have rekindled the question as to how bin Laden could have evaded Pakistani authorities for so long without institutional help as he changed residence at least five times across the country and fathered four children during his decade-long stay in the country. Two of these children were born in government hospitals, according to her account.
The other two widows are citizens of Saudi Arabia. Though according to Pakistani law the imprisonment for illegal entry is much longer, concession has been made in their case because they confessed to the crime. Also, Yemen has been seeking the return of Amal and her children though Saudi Arabia has not officially made any request for the repatriation of their citizens.
