Pak court sentences Osama’s widows illegal entry

Islamabad - A Pakistani court on Monday convicted Osama bin Laden’s three widows and two of his daughters of illegally entering and living in the country and sentenced them to 45 days in prison, with credit for time served, their lawyer said.

The five women have been in detention since last May when U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaeda chief at the walled compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad where he had been living with his family for six years.

Pakistani authorities formally arrested the women on March 3, so they will serve another two weeks in prison and then will be deported to their home countries along with the family’s younger children, said their lawyer, Mohammed Amir Khalil. Two of the widows are Saudi and one is Yemeni, he said.

Khalil said Yemen has consented to the return, but he is still in discussions with Saudi officials. Saudi Arabia stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994 because of his verbal attacks against the Saudi royal family.

The five women were also ordered to pay a fine of about $110 each, which has already been done, said Mr. Khalil. The lawyer does not plan to appeal the court’s ruling.

The charge sheet against the three women says that they gave officials fake identities.