Bin Laden burial at sea ‘demeans family,’ say sons

DUBAI—The burial at sea of Osama bin Laden “demeaned and humiliated” his family, the sons of the slain Al-Qaeda founder have said, while accusing US President Barack Obama for obliterating a defenceless family.

Eldest son Omar bin Osama bin Laden, speaking on behalf of his brothers, issued a statement disclosed by US monitoring group SITE Intelligence on Tuesday, a day after it was posted on jihadist websites.

“It is unacceptable — humanely and religiously — to dispose of a person with such importance and status among his people, by throwing his body into the sea in that way, which demeans and humiliates his family and his supporters and which challenges religious provisions and feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims,” he said.

He said Obama was “legally responsible” for obliterating an entire defenseless family as the American commando raid had gone inside Pakistan with the intention of killing their father and not arresting him.

The commandos carried out their “criminal mission and obliterated an entire defenseless family … contrary to the most basic human sentiment, and they rushed to dispose of the body,” he said.

The statement added that the family had the right to move US and international courts to seek out the “true fate of our vanished father.”

The United States has said it expects Pakistan will soon let it question three widows of bin Laden apprehended during the May 2 raid that killed him.

The exact whereabouts of the bin Laden family is unclear since the September 11, 2001 attacks were blamed on their father.