ISLAMABAD: A senior civil judge indicted former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s family on Monday for having resided illegally in Pakistan.
Senior Civil Judge Shahrukh Arjumand handed down 45-day imprisonment along with a fine of Rs10,000 each, to Bin Laden’s three widows and two daughters, after the investigative unit of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) informed that the family had been residing illegally in the country.
During the proceeding of the case which took place in a private house declared a sub-jail located in Sector G-6/4, Judge Arjumand handed the sentence to Bin Laden’s three widows, Amal Ahmad Abdul Fatheh, Silham Sharif, and Kharia Hussain Sabir, and two daughters, 17-year-old Maryam and 21-year-old Sumiya, said family’s lawyer Muhammad Aamir while talking to The Express Tribune.
Amal was also charged under section 419 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for cheating and not providing her real identity, said Khalid Naeem assistant director (legal) FIA who appeared on the behalf of agency.
Aamir said the period of detention began on March 3, when they were formally arrested on charges of illegal entry and residency in Pakistan and that they would continue to be held at their villa in Islamabad.
“The interior secretary has been directed to arrange their deportation,” Aamir told reporters outside the home in the capital, where the al Qaeda leader’s widows are living and which officials have declared a “sub jail”.
“I think it will be completed probably in two weeks,” he added.
Zakarya Ahmad Abd al Fattah, the Yemeni brother of Bin Laden's youngest and reputedly favourite wife, Amal, confirmed the sentence.
“The court has also given direction to the government to arrange the necessary documents for their earliest repatriation, so that they can go to their own country as soon as possible,” Fattah told reporters.
Sadeh along with Bin Laden’s two other wives from Saudi Arabia and an undisclosed number of children were among the 16 people detained by Pakistani authorities in the fallout of the May 2 raid on the al Qaeda leader’s Abbottabad compound.
Yemen had urged Pakistan to return Sadeh and her four children to her home country, saying they were not guilty of any crime.
The counsel of Sadeh’s brother was also present during the hearing.
Authorities had previously said they will repatriate the women to their home countries after a judicial commission probing the Bin Laden raid has completed its questioning.
The commission has interviewed the family members for clues about how the al Qaeda chief managed to stay in the country undetected.
COMMENTS (27)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Ch Allah Daad: Could not agree with you more on almost everything you have said. The only thing that bothers me is the lack of Osama's body, lack of an autopsy lack of reasonable photographs and without a body no chance of DNA testing. The only thing we have, I think, are Osama's wives and the CIA, Mossad, ISI only have to threaten their children with an accident and the wives will say anything the authorities want them to say. The only other witnesses to the Abbottabad incident are the brave lads who supposedly visited Abbottabad in the middle of the night, and surprise, surprise they are all dead. To compound our understanding of the problem I believe that the Pentagon have mislaid all the Abbottabad doumentation. In other words, Washington have all the loose ends tied up. What more can I say?
@MarkH: Dear Mark H, I will not go into the logic of what happened or did not happen in the Abbottabad debacle. We may never know what occurred upon that May day, but what we really do know is that Washington is untruthful about everything they get up to. I could go back in history to make my point, but Express Tribune would probably object to a 100,000 word missive. Let us settle for a few lies or unsatisfactory conclusions. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin which started the Vietnam war. Another debacle. A passenger aircraft supposedly crashed into the Pentagon, but we have seen no evidence of it. A few Saudis crashed planes into the twin towers, and the poor old Afghan Government got the blame. Does this sound familiar? America told the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, so an invasion took place. Most of the country was bombed into the stone age with over a million people killed, but no weapons of mass destruction were found. Although Afghanistan was also invaded because they would not hand over Osama bin Laden It has only taken the U.S. ten years to supposedly bring him to book. I do not know which country you come from, but in mine we usually have an autopsy to determine cause of death. It would have been preferable to put Osama on trial, but to my knowledge their is no evidence to back up the interminable accusations of Washington so they certainly would not want a court trial. I could go on for ever about American duplicity, but to sum up in one line, Americans in Washington tell lies. If they had kept Osama's body they would have been believable. The nonsense that they did not want Osama to be a shrine is just that; nonsense. They do seem to be able to get some people to believe them, but I do not intend to start believing in Santa Claus just yet. You can if you wish.
@Tony C.:
Too funny. No one cares what you believe or do not believe. Just as most of the world does not care what PAK believes or does not believe. The quesiton will always be there and that quesiton is who were the people in PAK who protected him and provided for his safety.....That my friend is what you should concern yourself with.
The OBL brood will travel to their home countries via DisneyLand (US)
Good! You do the crime, you do the time! No one should be above the law.
@ Tony C. If Judicial Commission or other investigators have not concluded what you have mentioned, then what they have been doing so far. The fact is that except for few retired army officers, no one else has denied anything in whole OBL saga. Once its established that these were Osama's children, then question arises whether they should be deported with their mothers or kept here under State custody. Let's see what a civilzed society would do in these circumstances. First of all they would never deport any of OBL family member to Yemen, which has become more dangerous than Pakistan. Secondly mother of these four kids is not charged with serious crimes, therefore she should be allowed to stay with her children on humantarian grounds. If she is charged with serious crimes, then she should be kept in Pakistan to face consequences as none of the crime was committed in Yemen. Last but not least, if she is a accomplice to OBL in all his actions and we must deport her for our own safety then why would send four innocent kids with such offender. Safety and bright future of kids come first, motherhood comes second. In my view these kids must be kept in Pakistan under state custody.
@Tony C.: It's not "could not" produce evidence. But, "would not." Also nobody "lost" him overboard. Most of what happened was admittedly documented. If you didn't notice, it was more of an attitude of "we don't really care if your public believes it and have nothing to prove to you and jump through hoops, you know he was there. explain yourselves."
If you really think beyond diplomacy that near and after that raid, Pakistan was being looked at in anywhere near a friendly manner, you're delusional. Look at how Pakistan itself treats people accused of betrayal. That's exactly what Pakistan was guilty of in those moments and you don't need the people who betrayed you to admit to it when you saw it with your own eyes and did have evidence you act as though didn't exist that was shown to the only people they needed support from. The US didn't need Pakistan to believe them. There was nothing left to confirm. They most certainly did not do that raid while doubts existed.
All staged, Just to please Mr. Sam. All of us know that our govt. and intelligence agencies LOVED OBL, too bad he's dead now and the American are not giving us enough money to fight him. I believe this Govt is corrupt, most of the politicians are corrupt and society overall corrupt also and these judges are part of the society as well. Cheers!
One would think with the intelligence information gathered from these "criminals" that Pakistan would have tracked down at least one of the many people who must have been assisting them over the years -- the anecdotal evidence would indicate that Pakistan doesn't have much (if any) intention of capturing these people. Says something about the Pakistan/OBL relationship.
@Ch Allah Daad: If it was not so serious, the whole thing from the dark night over Abbottabad to now, has taken on what could be considered a Saturday afternoon comedy/adventure/semi-thriller film. The Americans said they had Osama bin Laden, but conveniently could not provide any proof. So now Pakistan has to go to the expense of investigating what happened in Abbotabad when we only have America's word for it that they had Osama bin Laden, but lost him overboard in the Indian Ocean somewhere. Now, as you say, we have some children born in Pakistan and some who were not. Do we deport the Pakistani children or just their non-Pakistani siblings. Do we keep the Pakistani children but deport their mothers. The whole thing has become a confused mess, and poor old Pakistan has been stuck with what was really a U.S. problem. I am surprised that the widows have not been interviewed by the media. This would give the public a bit of a clue about Osama bin Laden's so called sojourn in Pakistan. I think we can safely say that now there is no body we will never know the full story. It appears that the Americans like to carry out doubtful actions which are designed to stimulate Conspiracy Theorists, and I have to admit I am one of them.
Derailment of JUSTICE.
This Court has decided without considering that kids born in Pakistan are Pakistani Citizens. How can they be deported?
The Abbottabad Commission is waiting for each and every piece of evidence to disappear before it makes any decision. The compound is razed to the ground, the families would be gone, and with that the last hope of justice and fairness! The terrorists and their protectors have won again.
Show trial and a farce. Is the world a fool ?
Considering the fact that these Muslim women were under the purview of their Muslim husband, they should be held with no charge and merely be offerred to be sent to their own country of choice. Their position is one of involuntary widowhood, after all.
Please ask them to please leave on a one way ticket. The families of many thousands of poor kids from KPK killed because of these peoples ideology will im sure curse you forever. Also please take all violent minded arab / uzbek/chechens and allover nutcases (who love violence and feel they have found a justifiable cause to hurt others) with you.
What nonsense. Charging them for illegally entering the country is absurd -- and someone please explain how housing someone in a Villa is considered punishment?
Let's do the pakistani thing and buy them a villa next to a military compound for services rendered by their late husband. In parallel we can let other law abiding pakistani's starve to death
Osama Bin Laden families should be repatriated to their respective countries as soon as possible. Leave the Commission's proceedings a side because they have interviewed them already.
The ISI should already deny any future statements that these ladies make upon return to their home countries!
45 days ? Oh i see , they are from HOLY LAND and hence HOLY treatment
They were part of Bin Laden's plan & should be punished more harshly as they were involved i.e falling into "Aiding & Abetting" category all the time he sneaked into Pakistan!
Will the ISI be paying the fine on their behalf?
It is very strange. Much severe punishment should be given to the people in the army who knew about their stay in the high profile military area. it is impossible that they were staying without knowledge of extremists in ISI & army.
Pakistan courts - the real picture. The courts we fought for.
Leave this OBL's Story now for God's Sake Pakistan has its own many other Problems...
They have been in custody since May 2, 2011. That covers 45 day imprisonment. Let them go and get rid of this evidence of incompetence.