According to a recently leaked document, the son of al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden, Abdallah bin Laden, sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia to ask for his father's death certificate.

In response, the embassy wrote to Abdallah to inform him that there was no death certificate issued for the older bin Laden.

The letter went on to suggest other ways that the al-Qaida leader's death could be officially confirmed.

The remarkable exchange has come to light thanks to the latest release from WikiLeaks, the controversial secret sharing organization helmed by Julian Assange. On Friday, the organization released more than a half-million cables and other documents purportedly from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, which it dubbed "The Saudi Cables."

The U.S. Embassy's response to Abdallah was included within the release. It is dated Sept. 9, 2011, approximately four months after bin Laden was killed by U.S.forcesduring a raid on his hideout in Pakistan. U.S.officialshave said that bin Laden was later buried at sea. Requests to publish photographs of bin Laden's body or his burial have been denied and any photographs taken are suspected to have been destroyed.

In the letter to Abdallah bin Laden, Glen Keiser, a consul general at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, explains that the lack of a death certificate for bin Laden is "consistent withregular practicefor individuals killed in the course of military operations."

Keiser goes on to suggest that the criminal case against Osama bin Laden had effectively been dropped due to his death since June 2011, and describes a process for requesting the order of "nolleprosequi" (which literally means "unwilling to pursue") from the court, which could act as proof of death.

It's unclear why Abdallah bin Laden had requested the death certificate.

In 2012, the Department of Defense responded to an Associated Press Freedom of Information Act request and said that it was unable to find a death certificate for bin Laden.