US Refuses Osama bin Laden's Death Certificate to His Son: WikiLeaks

Whistleblowing organisation WikiLeaks has published more than 60,000 diplomatic cables from Saudi Arabia that reveal, among others that the US embassy in Saudi Arabia had refused Osama bin Laden's son a death certificate.

According to a cable revealed on Friday, the son of the former Al Qaeda chief and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden wrote to the US embassy in Saudi Arabia asking for his father's death certificate, a request that was refused, Britain based IBTimes reported.

The revelation was contained in a stack of documents recently published by Julian Assange's WikiLeaks.

In response to Abdullah bin Laden's request, the embassy replied: "This is consistent with regular practice for individuals killed in the course of military operations."

The letter was dated September 9, 2011, four months after bin Laden was killed in a US raid on his Pakistani shelter in the garrison town of Abbottabad. US officials said that bin Laden was buried at sea.

"There is another mechanism by which to certify the death of Osama bin Laden," says the letter from Glen Keiser, a diplomat at the US embassy in Riyadh.

He refers to the nolle prosequi (Latin for "we shall no longer prosecute"), an order granted by the court that means the criminal case against bin Laden has been dropped and thus could act as proof of death.

On Friday, WikiLeaks marked the third anniversary of its founder Julian Assange seeking refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.