Bin Laden's father-in-law to be freed

Osama bin Laden's father-in-law is to be released soon, official sources said here yesterday.

"The release of Ahmed Abdul Fattah Assadah comes after investigations showed that he has nothing to do with the terrorist acts allegedly committed by Al Qaida organisation and its leader Osama bin Laden," 26 September weekly, the mouthpiece of the Yemeni Army, quoted well-informed sources as saying.

Based on the rule that one should not be blamed for the others' wrongdoing Assadah will be freed, the sources said.

The decision was welcomed by civic society organisations in Yemen.

"We welcome this step, even though we think this detention should not have taken place at all, because it contradicts with the constitution and laws," lawyer Khaled Al Ansi, spokesman of the National Committee for Rights and Liberties, told Gulf News yesterday.

Even if some people have relations with Al Qaida, for the sake of argument, the Yemeni penal law does not impeach them, Al Ansi stressed.

Earlier in the week, Assadah's family members, in a letter, appealed to President Ali Abdullah Saleh to order the security bodies to stop harassing them.

"We did not commit any crime, we absolutely have nothing to do with what is going on regarding Al Qaida or bin Laden," the letter stated.

There is no legal justification for hunting down our family that has no breadwinner to support the seven children, said Assadah's wife, Umm Basheer Assadah, who live in Ibb city, 200 km south of capital Sanaa.