Bin Laden's family to be deported from Pakistan early Apr 18

PanARMENIAN.Net - Osama bin Laden's family is expected to be deported from Pakistan early on Wednesday, April 18 their lawyer and an intelligence official said, 11 months after the U.S. raid that killed the Al-Qaeda kingpin, according to AFP.

Bin Laden's mastermind's three widows and their children were detained by the Pakistani authorities after the Saudi was killed in a U.S. Navy SEAL operation in the garrison town of Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, last May.

The news came as Washington and Islamabad try to patch up their relationship, which was badly damaged by the revelation that the world's most wanted man was living a stone's throw from Pakistan's elite military academy.

Two weeks ago a court sentenced the widows and two of bin Laden's older daughters to 45 days' detention on charges of illegal entry and residency in Pakistan and ordered their deportation as soon as possible.

They are due to complete the sentence, served in an Islamabad villa designated by authorities as a "sub-jail", on Tuesday, as it officially began when they were formally arrested on the charges on March 3.

"They will go tonight or tomorrow early in the morning. After 12 tonight they can be deported any time," their lawyer Muhammad Aamir told AFP on Tuesday.

Aamir said the family - who number 12, including bin Laden's three widows, eight children and one grandchild - would probably initially go to Saudi Arabia.

He said bin Laden's youngest and reportedly favourite wife, Amal Abdulfattah, who is Yemeni, may be sent to Yemen afterwards with her five children.