Saudi Arabia says it has ‘no suspicions’ about Bin Laden widows and children

July 31, 2016

By Luke Browne

Pakistani policemen escort a minivan carrying family members of slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Islamabad, as they leave for the airport before their departure to Saudi Arabia on April 26, 2012.
AAMIR QURESHI

Saudi Arabia has indicated that it will allow Osama bin Laden’s widows and children – deported from Pakistan last week – to remain in the kingdom, after claiming they had no suspicions that any of the individuals were involved in terrorism.

According to Al Arabiya, an official source told the state-run Saudi Press Agency that the dead Al Qaeda leader’s three wives and 11 children were met in the city of Jeddah by bin Laden family members on Thursday night, and were being offered shelter by Saudi Arabia out of “humanitarian considerations.”

One of the widows is Yemeni and the other two are Saudi citizens. The official said there was “no information or evidence of the family’s involvement or participation in any criminal or illegal acts.”

Relatives of Bin Laden’s Yemeni widow, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, said Friday she had received assurances from Saudi Arabia that she and her five children could stay in the country, the Associated Press reports.

The group spent a year in Pakistani custody after Bin Laden was tracked down and killed by US special forces in a pre-dawn raid on a safe house in the north-western Pakistani city of Abbottabad last May.

According to the BBC, the women and two eldest children were charged with staying in Pakistan illegally, and completed a 45-day term of imprisonment at a villa in the capital, Islamabad, last week, along with the rest of their children. The group was also sentenced to deportation.