Bin Laden's family of twelve kicked out of Pakistan just days before the first anniversary of his death

Culled from Dailymail

The widows – Amal Ahmed Abdul Fateh, Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar – have all been in custody with their children since the pre-dawn May 2 Navy SEAL raid last year on Bin Laden’s hideaway compound in Abbottabad. Fateh, Bin Laden’s youngest widow, is expected to travel on to her native Yemen with her four children. The first sign that the family was departing came when a bus arrived at the home where they were being held under house arrest in Islamabad to take them to the airport.

It was covered with a big cloth to hide them from the media. A special plane was flown in from Saudi Arabia to pick them up under tight security. A statement from the Interior Ministry said 14 members of the Bin Laden family had been deported to the 'country of their choice, Saudi Arabia'.

The widows and two older daughters, aged 17 and 21, pleaded guilty to impersonation, illegal entry into Pakistan and staying in the country illegally. Fateh told Pakistani investigators that Bin Laden spent years on the run in Pakistan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, moving from one safe house to another and fathering four children. The departure of the family closed another chapter in an affair that cemented Pakistan's reputation as a hub of Islamist extremism and cast doubt on its trustworthiness as a Western ally. In February, authorities bulldozed the large compound where Bin Laden had lived in the north-western garrison town of Abbottabad.

The U.S. commandos took Bin Laden's body, which they later buried at sea, but left his family behind. It is unclear whether Pakistan gave U.S. intelligence officials any access to the wives, who are likely to have information about how Bin Laden managed to evade capture in Pakistan for nearly a decade following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States. The Pakistani government has denied knowing the terrorist leader's whereabouts. Saudi officials have given little information about the family and the plan to deport them.

The country stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994 because of his verbal attacks against the Saudi royal family, and there have been questions about whether the country would accept the women. Pakistani officials were outraged that the U.S. did not tell them about the operation against Bin Laden until after it happened - a decision American officials explained by saying they were worried the information would be leaked. Relations between the two countries plummeted after the raid, and have yet to recover.