A U.S. Appeals Court ruled on Tuesday that the more than 50 photographs taken of Osama Bin Laden after his death, may remain secret. The blocked Osama Bin Laden photos had been requested by a Conservative Watchdog group. 

The Federal Appeals court ruling was unanimous by the three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, reports Reuters today. They rejected the request by the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, to release the protected photographs, after Judicial Watch initiated the appeal process in April of 2012.

It's still not clear whether the decision today by the Court of Appeals will end the conservative groups battle to make the dead Osama Bin Laden photos public. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals ruling to continue to block Osama Bin Laden photos from public view said:

"It is undisputed that the government is withholding the images not to shield wrongdoing or avoid embarrassment, but rather to prevent the killing of Americans and violence against American interest."

After Bin Laden was killed, the CIA the Department of Defense made photos of the deceased Osama bin Laden top secret in an effort to temper outrage over the killing in the Muslim world. Westerners would have been exposed to the dangerous backlash over the killing if the Bin Laden photos had surfaced in the public realm. 

The photos that did surface immediately after Osbama bin Laden was killed by Seal Team 6, turned out to be a hoax, which fooled then-Massachusetts Senator, Scott Brown. 

The dead Osama Bin Laden pictures have been closely guarded among the CIA and military intelligence, in an effort t spur the advances of angered Al Qaeda members who would retaliate if Bin Laden's corpse was exposed for the world at large to see. 

After Osama bin Laden was shot by Seal Team 6, his corpse as buried at sea to further prevent the backlash. 

But because there is scant evidence of Bin Laden's death and because of secrecy surrounding his whereabouts, many believe the terrorist mastermind to still be alive. There isn't much evidence to the contrary as U.S. officials keep the dead Osama Bin Laden photos private.

It appears, after the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., that the photos will continue to be guarded from the public.