AFP



MADRID - One of Osama bin Laden's sons has asked for political asylum in Spain, the Spanish interior ministry said Tuesday, months after he was refused permission to live in England with his British wife.

Omar bin Laden, a self-described pacifist, made the request immediately after arriving at Madrid airport on Monday on a flight from Cairo that had been going on to Casablanca in Morocco.

"He has asked for political asylum," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a press conference, without specifying on what grounds the request had been made.

"We know he has travelled to several countries in Europe, that he has a home in Cairo although he travels on a passport from Saudi Arabia," he added.

Under Spanish asylum rules, the ministry has 72 hours to make a decision, and the petitioner has a right of appeal.

Omar, 28, will remain at the airport while his request for asylum is processed, an interior ministry spokesman said.

Authorities in Britain turned down a request in April from Omar bin Laden for a settlement visa. At the time he said he wanted to live in England with his new British wife, Zaina Alsabah bin Laden, 52, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne.

The British embassy in Cairo said it had based its decision on fears that his presence in the country would cause "considerable public concern".

Omar is the fourth of 11 children born to his father's first wife, and he is one of 19 children Osama bin Laden has fathered.

In an interview broadcast on CNN in January, Omar urged his father to give up violence.

"I try and say to my father: 'Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it's not good to use it for anybody,'" he said.

He also said he had not spoken to his father since 2000, when he walked away from an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan with Osama's blessings, and does not know where the Al-Qaeda leader is.

Osama bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.

In 2004 Spain suffered one of Europe's deadliest attacks when bombs planted by Islamic extremists inspired by Al-Qaeda and angered by the country's participation in the US-led invasion of Iraq exploded on packed commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people.

Spain rejects asylum appeal from bin Laden's son and deports him to Egypt

By PAUL HAVEN

MADRID, Spain - Spain has rejected a final appeal for asylum by a son of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and put him on a plane bound for Egypt, the Interior Ministry and a lawyer for the man said Saturday.

Omar Osama bin Laden and his British wife left Spain on a commercial flight Saturday afternoon, the day after his final appeal for asylum was rejected, lawyer Bianca Sharma told The Associated Press.

"We fought to the last minute," Sharma said. "We used up every legal avenue and it wasn't possible (to stay)."

The couple arrived late Saturday at Cairo airport. Egyptian security officials said they were opening an investigation to determine what prompted the couple to seek political asylum in Spain.

The younger bin Laden, 27, flew to Spain on Monday and spent the week in a transit area at Madrid's Barajas Airport. He claimed he would not be safe if returned to an Arab country.

Sharma described her client as a "beautiful person" who had "nothing to do with fanatics or terrorists." She said his petition was denied for political reasons, and that after arriving in Egypt he would eventually be returned to Saudi Arabia, where he holds citizenship.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba confirmed that bin Laden's son had been deported, saying his application for asylum did not meet any Spanish requirements. The Interior Ministry denied his bid for asylum on Wednesday, and turned back the appeal Friday night.

The government says it usually seeks a recommendation from the U.N. refugee agency in asylum request cases, and that the agency had also recommended against asylum.

Omar Osama bin Laden — one of the al-Qaida leader's 19 children — caused a tabloid storm last year after marrying a British woman, 52-year-old Jane Felix-Browne, who has since taken the name Zaina Alsabah.

In an interview with Spain's El Mundo newspaper before her husband's deportation, Felix-Browne said her husband was very upset about the possibility of being sent back.

"Omar is very depressed," she said. "He says it would be better to be dead."

The couple have been living in Cairo. The younger bin Laden has not renounced his father, but has said he wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between the Muslim world and the West.

Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghan border region.

The younger bin Laden moved to Afghanistan with his father in 1996 after living with him in Sudan, and trained at an al-Qaida camp. But Omar has said he has not seen his father since he left Afghanistan in 2000 and returned to his homeland of Saudi Arabia.