ISLAMABAD (dpa) – Pakistan's interior minister said Thursday that his department has instituted legal proceedings against the family of former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, for illegally entering and staying in the country. Bin Laden's widows – two Saudis and one Yemeni – and several children were detained by Pakistani officers in May after bin Laden was killed in a covert US operation in Abbotabad, 61 kilometers north-east of the capital, Islamabad. Rehman Malik said the family members appeared before a court three days ago before being shifted to a private house on judicial remand. He refused to give details about where the court proceedings were conducted or where the family is being kept. It not clear what sort of punishment would be meted out in case of a guilty verdict. Amal al-Sadeh, the youngest of the three widows and a Yemeni national, married bin Laden in 2000 when she was 18. She was his fifth wife. The two Saudi wives have been identified as Umm-e-Hamza and Umm-e-Khalid. Earlier reports had stated that Amal, now 29, could be sent back to Yemen. But, in July, a judicial commission probing the killing of bin Laden barred the repatriation of his family members to their native countries. The government last year set up a five-member panel headed by a Supreme Court judge to investigate the failure by intelligence agencies to track down the former terror chief. The unilateral US action strained relations with Pakistan, which saw the apprehension as a violation of the country's sovereignty. Pakistan's military and civilian leadership reportedly had been under US pressure for not doing enough to hunt down bin Laden. Pakistan last month also demolished the three-storey compound where bin Laden lived and was killed. The government feared that the house could become a shrine for the Muslim radicals. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/zhY6w Tags: Bin Laden, Charges, Family, Pakistan Section: International, Latest News, Pakistan
