Bin Laden's wives face deportation from Pakistan

Osama Bin Laden's family could be deported from Pakistan within the next two weeks after a court sentenced them to a jail term for entering the country illegally.

His three widows and nine of his children and grandchildren have been held under house arrest since the al-Qaeda leader was shot dead by US special forces last May in the town of Abbottabad.

Their presence has been a headache for Pakistan, which is keen to draw a line under the episode. Yesterday (Monday), a special court convened at their secure Islamabad guesthouse - designated a "sub jail" by city authorities - to sentence the three wives and their two eldest daughters.

A judge ordered them to serve 45 days imprisonment, pay a pounds 70 fine and face deportation at the end of their sentence, according to the family's lawyer.

Muhammad Aamir Khalil said their detention began on March 3, when they were formally charged with illegal entry, leaving two weeks to serve. "The interior secretary has been directed to arrange their deportation," he told reporters.

That comes with risks for Pakistan. They might yet spill secrets about assistance from the state, which has long been accused of sheltering al-Qaeda leaders.

At the same time, it raises the prospect of Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sadah, bin Laden's youngest and most Jihad-minded wife, returning to Yemen, where she could become a terrorist figurehead.

While the apparently minor charges have baffled some, Hasan Askari Rizi, an analyst, said: "The authorities are trying to do everything by the book because they don't want to be accused of doing something improper, as they have been with prisoners handed over to the US in the past."

Zakarya Ahmad Abd al-Fattah, the brother of Amal, said Yemen had agreed to take back his sister, but Saudi Arabia had not yet agreed to take the other two wives.