The family of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, killed almost a year ago by US special forces in a military town in northwest Pakistan, left Pakistan for Saudi Arabia early yesterday morning, the family lawyer said.
The move ends months of speculation about the fate of the three widows and 11 children, who were detained by Pakistani security forces after the US raid on May 2 last year.
“Yes, they are being deported to Saudi Arabia,” family lawyer Aamir Khalil said. “It is a special flight.”
Photo: AFP
Once outside Pakistan, the family could reveal details about how the world’s most wanted man was able to hide in Pakistan for years, possibly assisted by elements of its powerful military and spy agency.
Any revelations about ties to bin Laden could embarrass Pakistan and anger Washington, which had been hunting bin Laden since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
The plane took off at about 1:30am for Saudi Arabia, according to local TV channels.
Yemeni Ambassador to Pakistan Abdo Ali Abdulrahman Islamabad said the family was heading to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah.
“The plane carrying Amal and [her brother] Zakariya al-Sadeh and the rest of the family is heading to Jeddah,” Ali Abdulrahman said by telephone early yesterday.
“This chapter that has continued for a year is now closed,” he added.
At the house in Islamabad where the family were being held, a white minivan pulled up to take them to the airport. The women refused to enter the van with a crush of media around it, so officials covered its windows with plastic sheets.
The Pakistani Ministry of the Interior, which was responsible for the family, issued a statement saying it had “passed orders for the deportation of 14 members of OBL family in pursuance of the Court orders.”
“The family was kept safe and sound in a guest house ... They have been deported to the country of their choice, Saudi Arabia, today,” it added.
Apart from the three widows, the deportees included seven children and four grandchildren.
Earlier this month, a court sentenced the women to 45 days in prison for entering Pakistan illegally. It ordered their deportation after the end of the prison term, which began on March 3, when they were formally arrested.
Pakistani officials describe bin Laden’s long presence in the hill-town of Abbottabad as a security lapse and reject suggestions that members of the military and intelligence service were complicit in hiding him.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS