Family's fears for Bin Laden wife - imprisoned after trying to save her terrorist husband.

by Gary Anderson, Sunday Mirror 21/08/2011

OSAMA Bin Laden’s ­favourite wife is still ­being held in Pakistan three months after he was killed.

Amal al-Sadah was shot in the leg as she tried to shield her ­husband when US Navy Seals burst into the Al Qaeda terror chief’s hideout in ­Abbottabad.

But her brother Zakariya ­al-Sadah says she is refusing ­treatment in protest at her ­detention along with her five children by Bin Laden.

“We are worried about her physical and mental health,” said Zakariya, who is campaigning to have his sister released and ­allowed to return to live in her native Yemen. “My sister is being held illegally. Under international law she should be set free.

“She’s not locked in a cell but is watched 24 hours a day and is living in a small room with her ­children.

“Yet she hasn’t been tried or convicted and we have no idea where she is being held.”

He added: “The wounds to her leg are not minor, but she is refusing surgery until she is allowed to see her family.”

Zakariya claimed his sister had done nothing wrong... quietly forgetting that she had plenty of ­opportunities to inform the authorities of her husband’s whereabouts during their 10-year ­marriage.

“My sister was a wife, she did not commit any crime,” he said. “She did not want to be involved in anything her ­husband was doing. She was busy ensuring her children were raised well, like any mother.”

Amazingly, he said his ­family had no regrets about letting his sister marry Bin Laden, who masterminded the World Trade Center attacks in which 2,974 died.

Amal, 28, was “gifted” to Bin Laden, who ­already had four wives, when she was just 15.

Two Saudi wives and another five children captured after the May 1 raid on the Abbottabad compound are also thought to be still in ­detention in Pakistan.

It was widely known that Amal gave birth to a daughter days after 9/11. She was named Safia by Bin Laden, after a relative of the ­prophet Mohammed who “had killed a Jew”. But ­Zakariya ­revealed she has had four more children – two  sons and two daughters – further evidence that the world’s most wanted ­terrorist was able to ­establish a comfortable life under the noses of the Pakistani ­authorities before the US hunted him down.

Zakariya added: “We want the children to be brought up by their mother in Yemen. And we are not at all worried about raising Bin Laden’s children. We have been through a lot of hardships since Amal married Osama, but we do not regret the marriage. Amal never complained about Osama as a husband. She did not know most of what he was doing outside their married life.”

Zakariya said the US may have missed opportunities to capture Bin Laden in the past as Amal’s parents had visited her several times after she wed Bin Laden.

He added: “We are hoping my sister’s release can be resolved quickly, before we have to take Pakistan to the international courts and get compensation for the damage they have caused to her and to our family.”