Yemen NGO wants repatriation of Osama widow

Updated at: 1558 PST, Tuesday, May 17, 2011
SANAA: A Yemeni human rights organisation said on Tuesday that it is working to repatriate the youngest widow of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Amal Abdulfattah, a Yemeni who is detained in Pakistan.

The National Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) is acting "on behalf of the family of Amal," part of the Al-Sada tribe of Ibb province, southwest of the capital Sanaa, lawyer Abdulrahman Baraman said.

US intelligence services have reportedly interrogated three of bin Laden's widows who were picked up in the US commando raid north of Islamabad in which the Al-Qaeda leader was killed.

Abdulfattah, 29 and the youngest of the three widows, sustained a gunshot wound to her leg during the operation.

"We will call on the Yemeni government to demand the release and repatriation of Amal, who is detained and being questioned in Pakistan by the Americans," said Baraman.

"She is innocent. Her only crime was having married Osama bin Laden," he added.

He said that HOOD was planning to contact international human rights organisations to ask for their help in securing the release of Abdulfattah, who has at least one daughter, Safiya.

Pakistani authorities have said that neither Yemen nor Saudi Arabia -- the country of origin of the other two widows -- have requested the extradition of the women, who were found along with their 13 children in the villa compound where bin Laden was killed on May 2. (AFP)