Iran can prove Bin Laden was dead long before US raid – Iranian minister

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Published time: May 10, 2011 13:07
Edited time: May 10, 2011 19:15

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi claims that Osama Bin Laden died from an illness before the US raid on his compound in Abbottabad. Iran has documents to prove it, he said.

­"We have credible information that Bin Laden died some time ago of a disease," Moslehi said on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, as quoted by ISNA news agency.

"If the US military and intelligence apparatus have really arrested or killed Bin Laden, why don't they show him [his body]? Why have they thrown his corpse into the sea?" Moslehi asked rhetorically, FARS news agency reports.

Moslehi labeled the US raid in Abbottabad as a “PR campaign”, created to divert the attention of its citizens from domestic problems, such as the “fragile” state of the US economy.

"We believe that what the US is seeking, by dictated media programs, to overshadow the recent awakening in the region through the release of such reports," ISNA quoted Moslehi as saying.

Bin Laden was killed on May 2 in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, north of the capital Islamabad, during a special operation carried out by US Navy Seals. President Barack Obama announced the news in a special address to the nation.

The news of “justice having been done” sparked mass celebrations in the United States and then ignited a new wave of conspiracy theories after Washington refused to release Bin Laden’s postmortem photographs, claiming that they might instigate a new wave of radicalism.