Islamabad: Three of Osama bin Laden's widows, who were captured following the US raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader, are soon expected to leave Pakistan after seven months in custody.
According to a media report, the three women – two Saudis and one Yemeni – were picked up by Pakistani security officials early on the morning of May 2 in Abbottabad, just minutes after US Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in the compound where he was believed to be living for six years.
A Pakistani intelligence official told ABC News that the three widows had been cleared to leave Pakistan a month ago.
Saudi Arabia recently restored the citizenship of wives Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar, according to Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat.
Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, another wife from Yemen, is likely to go to Qatar, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Two Western officials said they were not surprised by the announcement but cautioned that the repatriation of the women might not happen quickly.
US officials have been generally dismissive of the wives' relevance to investigations into bin Laden since failing to get information out of them.
The three women have been held by Pakistan's intelligence service since May but it is not clear they ever knew enough to shed light on bin Laden's travels after 2001 and how he came to be living in Abbottabad, ABC News reported.
US officials told the channel they were allowed to speak to the women once, and that the oldest of the three was "so combative that nothing at all came from the interrogation".
Pakistani officials have not said "how much, if anything, they learned from the women", who were debriefed by Pakistani intelligence officials and a judicial commission investigating bin Laden's presence in the country.
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