Bin Laden relatives jailed

Osama Bin Laden's three widows and two of his daughters were convicted of illegally entering and staying in Pakistan on Monday. They received sentences of 45 days in prison - with 31 of those already served during their trial - fined 10,000 rupees ($110, 75 euros), and will face deportation to their home countries when released.

Despite being formally arrested on March 3 ahead of their trial, the five women had been in detention since last May when the al Qaeda leader was killed by US commandos at a compound in the town of Abbottabad.

The women's lawyer, Amir Khalil, said that the fines had been paid on the spot and that the family's younger children would travel with them when they left Paksitan. Khalil also said that his clients did not plan to appeal the ruling.

Two of the wives are Saudi Arabian, one hails from Yemen. Khalil said authorities in Yemen had already approved the defendants' return, though he was still negotiating with Saudi Arabia, which stripped Bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994.

Once out of Pakistan, the women might reveal more information about how Bin Laden was able to evade capture and detection for years in Pakistan. No evidence has been found suggesting that Pakistani authorities knew where Bin Laden was, but doubts remain given that he lived so close to some sensitive military sites.

Washington hunted Bin Laden for almost a decade after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

msh/rc (dpa, Reuters)