ISLAMABAD — The family of Osama bin Laden’s youngest wife has asked the chief justice of Pakistan to order authorities to release her and her children from de facto house arrest and allow them to return to Yemen, nine months after the U.S. special-forces raid that killed the al-Qaeda founder.
Zakaria Ahmad al-Sadah, brother of Amal al-Sadah, bin Laden’s Yemeni wife, said in an interview that he had appealed directly to the activist chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, as a “last resort” after spending three fruitless months in Pakistan seeking her release.
Zakaria al-Sadah said his sister’s five children were in poor mental health and had received no schooling since they were taken into custody after the May 2 raid. He also said that a gunshot wound his sister suffered in her knee during the raid hadn’t been treated properly and that she still couldn’t walk. A Navy SEAL shot her as she apparently tried to shield bin Laden.
The U.S. raiding party took bin Laden’s body from the hideout but left behind Amal al-Sadah and her children, as well as two other wives and four other children, who Zakaria al-Sadah said were bin Laden’s grandchildren.
Al-Sadah, a 24-year-old student at the University of Sana, lodged the two-page petition with the Supreme Court on Thursday. His sister, who’s now 31, married bin Laden in or around the year 2000. Their oldest child, Safiya, about 12 years old, reportedly was cradling her wounded mother when Pakistani officials reached the compound in Abbottabad. Al-Sadah identified his sister’s other children as Ibrahim, about 8; Asia, around 7; Zainab, around 5; and Hussain, around 3.
There’s no evidence that any of the wives of bin Laden, who married six times and fathered at least 21 children, were involved in al-Qaeda. Al-Sadah said his sister was a “housewife” who spent her married life only raising their children.
