Doha: Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television on September 10 aired a videotape of Osama bin Laden in which he was shown calling for the release of jailed Islamist militants, but did not say when the tape was made.

"O God, may You free Sheikh Omar Abdurrahman in America, our ulema (Muslim scholars) in the Arabian Peninsula and other countries ... Sheikh Saeed bin Zuair and his brethren from the jails of the land of the two Holy Mosques (Saudi Arabia), and the youth of Islam everywhere," he said.

Bin Zuair, a prayer leader at a Riyadh mosque, has been held in the Saudi capital for eight years for his perceived extremist views.