Osama bin Laden’s three widows still held in Pakistan

Osama bin Laden’s three widows are still held in Pakistan, brother of one of the late al-Qaeda leader’s widow said.

“The Pakistani authorities are still holding the three women even though they have finished interrogating them,” Zakaria al-Sada, brother of bin Laden’s widow Amal al-Sada, told Al Arabiya.

Sada added that the three widows and their children and grandchildren are kept in a house in the Pakistani capital Islamabad under deplorable conditions.

“The house admits no sunlight at all, the detainees are in a very bad psychological condition, and my sister has not recovered from her leg injury,” Sada said.

Sada added that since his arrival in Pakistan, he has been trying to lobby for the release of his sister and her five children, but to no avail.

“According to the information I got from the embassy of Yemen in Islamabad, the Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik did not approve the release of bin Laden family and did not give any reasons,” he added.

Sada added that he has not been allowed to visit them for the past two weeks.

Sada said he was contacting several rights organizations in an attempt to lobby for the release of his sister and her children.

“I want the issue to be given more attention especially that there are no legal grounds at all for detaining them.”

Sada refrained from appearing on camera citing concerns over harming the case of his sister and her children and his attempts to set them free.


(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)