A lawyer who is going to represent in the case the youngest widow — Ms Abdulfattah, a Yemeni — said after the preliminary hearing that he would file a power of attorney on behalf of his client on Monday. - File photo

ISLAMABAD: A court here on Saturday remanded members of the family of slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in judicial custody for nine days.

Senior Civil Judge Sharukh Arjumand conducted hearings in the trial of Bin Laden’s widows, Khairiah Hussain Sabir alias Ume Khalid, Shaim Sharif and Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, and daughters Mariam and Samina in a house on the Embassy Road. The house has been declared a sub-jail by the Islamabad chief commissioner. Nine children are also part of the family.

The special investigation unit of the Federal Investigation Agency had booked them under Sections 212, 419 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 13 and 14-RW of the Foreigners Act related to abetting a culprit, making fake identity, taking illegal asylum and unlawfully residing in the country.

The charges carry a minimum punishment of three years in prison.

The court ordered the appointment of an interpreter before the next hearing, to be held on March 26, in the sub-jail because of the sensitivity of the matter.

It allowed Khairiah to speak to her family in Saudi Arabia.

Security agencies had taken the family into custody from a compound in Abbottabad after the killing of Bin Laden by US commandos on May 2 last year.

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has alleged before the memo inquiry commission that American investigators’ access to the widows was one of the conditions for delivering the memorandum to former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, to which former ambassador Husain Haqqani had agreed.

AFP adds: A lawyer who is going to represent in the case the youngest widow — Ms Abdulfattah, a Yemeni — said after the preliminary hearing that he would file a power of attorney on behalf of his client on Monday.

Mohammad Aamir said the woman’s brother Zakarya Ahmad Abdulfattah had hired him to represent his sister and her children.

He said he would seek access to the accused and a copy of the FIR filed against her. “I will also pray to the judge to allow her brother to see her before the next hearing.”