Bin Laden widows, children to be relocated

ISLAMABAD -- Osama bin Laden's three widows and their nine children were to be deported to Saudi Arabia overnight, almost a year after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida chief at a compound in northwest Pakistan, their lawyer said yesterday.

The family was detained by Pakistani authorities immediately after the predawn raid on May 2 in Abbottabad. The American commandos left them behind, but took bin Laden's body, which they buried at sea.

The relatives were 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, ended yesterday.

Pakistani officials have said little publicly about the family, raising questions about why they were kept in detention for so long.

Some speculated that Pakistan was worried information from the widows would point to some level of official assistance in hiding bin Laden. The Abottabad compound where he lived for six years was about a half-mile from one of Pakistan's main military academies.

The government has denied knowing the terrorist leader's whereabouts, and the United States has said it has no evidence senior Pakistani officials knew he was in Abbottabad. But details leaked to the media from the interrogation of one of bin Laden's widows raised further questions about how he was able to live in the country unnoticed for so long.

Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada said the al-Qaida chief lived in five houses in Pakistan while on the run for nine years and fathered four children, two of them born in government hospitals. -- AP