Osama bin Laden's wives have been charged for entering and living in Pakistan illegally, the country's interior minister announced on Thursday. 

Three of the former al-Qaida head's wives and nine of his children were being held in a detention facility in Pakistan prior to being charged. They were discovered in the same Abbottabad compound as bin Laden during last year's Navy SEALs raid, which left the founder of the terrorist network dead.

"They (the wives) were presented before the court. After that, they are on judicial remand, and are being kept in a proper, legal manner," Pakistani minister Rehman Malik told reporters of bin Laden's three wives. "Cases have been registered against the adults, not the children."

All were living in Pakistan illegally and without a visa. It is unclear what will happen to bin Laden's children but Malik said that the children were free to return to their native countries, upon agreement with their mothers.

Bin Laden had several wives and reportedly fathered anywhere from 20 to 26 children, most of which escaped to Iran following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The three wives with him in the Pakistani compound were of Yemeni and Saudi Arabian decent.

The news surrounding bin Laden's widows comes as a series of leaked emails have sparked controversy over burial of the former terrorist leader.

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In the wake of the announcement of Osama bin Laden's death, the U.S. said that the terrorist leader's body had been taken from Pakistan to Afghanistan for identification and buried at sea in accordance with Islamic tradition.

However, details of leaked emails obtained by the hacker group Anonymous from the intelligence analysis firm Stratfor, have been made public, and point to the possibility that bin Laden's body was brought to the United States for cremation.

"If the body (was) dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolf Eichmann like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes," Stratfor's vice-president for intelligence Fred Burton said in one of the obtained emails.

Eichmann is known for his role as the main architect of the Holocaust, having a major hand in the deaths of millions during WWII.

"Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced to death and executed. No one wanted a monument to him so they cremated him," he added.