The brother-in-law of slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has intensified his legal battle for getting his sister Amal Abdul Fattah Al-Saddah, the Yemeni widow of the terror mastermind, from Pakistani custody and moved the the Islamabad High Court seeking permission to meet his sister.
In a writ petition filed under article 199 of the Pak Constitution on Tuesday, Zakaria Al-Saddah said his sister was still suffering from bullet wounds she received during the midnight operation of U.S. Special Forces in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2 last in which bin Laden was shot dead. He said Amal Saddah was suffering due to improper treatment and pleaded with the court to order the authorities to provide her better medical treatment.
Zakaria's lawyer Mohammad Amir Khalil said the court had been requested to quash the cases against Amal Saddah as all the allegations leveled against her were baseless. The writ petition also requested the court to release all family members including her five minor children who are also under detention along with other family members.
After detaining the bin Laden family for ten months by the Pakistani authorities, they were shifted to Islamabad early this month and court proceedings were initiated under several charges including illegally entering and staying in the country without legal documents beside other charges, the Arab News reported quoting Khalil. All the family members were kept under house arrest in a posh area of Islamabad under heavy security.
Pakistani media reported on Tuesday that bin Laden family members entered Pakistan via Afghanistan and were living in different areas under fake names and also getting treatments in different hospitals by hiding their real identity. The reports further said the family members were not cooperating in the investigation so they need an Arabic interpreter as only one widow can communicate in English. Three widows and two daughters of bin Laden were implicated in the case and their trial began last year.
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