The family of Osama bin Laden is expected to be deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia in the next few hours.
They were supposed to have been flown out of the country on a chartered plane at around midnight but the deportation has been delayed due to last minute changes to the paperwork, according to officials.
Bin Laden's three wives and nine children have been under arrest since he was killed in a compound in Abbottabad in a raid by US Navy Seals last May.
The family have been questioned extensively over the last year by Pakistani authorities but they have not been charged with any offences relating to terrorist activity.
They have though been convicted of the relatively minor crime of illegally entering and staying in the country.
They were sentenced to 45 days in jail.
The prison term which was spent at a plush, well-guarded villa in Islamabad ended on Tuesday.
The manner and length of time they have been detained by the Pakistanis has been controversial.
There have been accusations that the country's intelligence service, the ISI, has detained them for so long because they held extremely sensitive information.
There have been numerous claims Pakistan helped hide bin Laden for the best part of a decade after he fled Afghanistan in late 2001 following the US invasion after the September 11 attacks.
Pakistan has denied it knew the world's most wanted terrorist was hiding in its backyard but the episode has been extremely embarrassing and damaging to US-Pakistani relations.
The US has said publicly it has no information suggesting Pakistan knew bin Laden was in Abbottabad but privately many officials find Islamabad's denials unbelievable.
Pakistan is putatively the US's closest non-Nato ally in the fight against global terrorism.
Details leaked to the media following the interrogation of one of bin Laden's widows have also raised further questions.
Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatha al Sada claims the al Qaeda mastermind lived in five safe houses in Pakistan over the last nine years and fathered four children - two of whom were born in government hospitals.
It is also possible that Pakistan has had to hold the family for so long because it has found it difficult to find a country willing to accept them.
Two of the widows are from Saudi Arabia and one is from Yemen.
Saudi Arabia stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994 after numerous verbal attacks on the House of Saud - the country's ruling royal family.
But a deal has now been done with the oil rich kingdom and one there they will live in relative anonymity and in luxury.
Their lawyer says they will stay at the grace and favour of bin Laden's half-brother, Bakr Bin Mohammed bin Ladin.
He chairs the country's largest and mega-rich construction company, Saudi Binladin.
The company is family owned and does not publish its income but it is thought to be worth billions of pounds.
It is also believed that Pakistani officials have extracted a promise from Saudi Arabia that none of bin Laden's family will speak publicly about their life on the run with the world's most wanted terrorist as part of the deal
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