A Yemeni rights group says it is pressing Pakistan to release the Yemeni widow of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and her five children from custody and repatriate them to Yemen.
Pakistani authorities detained Yemeni, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, 29, and her children on May 2, shortly after U.S. special forces raided a Pakistani compound where they were hiding with the terrorist leader. Bin Laden's two other wives, who are Saudis, and their children also were detained at the compound in the city of Abbottabad.
Yemen's National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) said Tuesday it is working on behalf of Sada's family to repatriate her and the five children to the country. The group says it wants the Yemeni government to help persuade Pakistan to let the six family members leave.
Sada's brother, Zakariya Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, says the Yemeni ambassador in Islamabad assured him that his sister is in "good health." The United States has said U.S. Navy SEALs shot and wounded her in the leg when she rushed at them during the nighttime raid. Pakistan granted U.S. authorities access to Sada and the other wives last week.
Sada's father told the Reuters news agency that he accepted a local matchmaker's proposal for his daughter to marry bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1999, when she was 18. Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada says he wants his daughter to return to Yemen and believes she had nothing to do with al-Qaida's terrorist activities.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
