One of Osama bin Laden’s sons has asked for political asylum in Spain, the Spanish interior ministry said on 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’s Barajas airport on Monday on a flight from Cairo, where he currently lives, that had been en route to Casablanca in Morocco.
“He has asked for asylum. The law has been applied. He is being held in Barajas and the asylum commission, which has the legal capacity to decide if he should receive asylum or not, is analyzing the request,” Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez told a press conference.
PHOTO: AP
Rubalcaba did not say on what grounds the 28-year-old, who was travelling on a passport from Saudi Arabia, was seeking asylum from the commission which is answerable to the minister.
Under Spanish asylum rules, the ministry has 72 hours to make a decision, and the petitioner has a right of appeal.
Omar flew to Madrid with his wife Zaina Alsabah bin Laden, 52, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne, who he married last year, a source close to Omar bin Laden said.
Authorities in Britain turned down a request in April from Omar for a settlement visa.
At the time he said he wanted to live in England with Zaina at her home in northwestern England.
The British embassy in Cairo said it had based its decision on fears that his presence in the country would cause “considerable public concern.”
It is thought the authorities were referring to comments made by Omar that he could not be certain that his father was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against the US that killed more than 3,000 people.
Asked during an interview with CNN in January if he knew his father was behind the attacks, Omar replied: “Yeah, maybe.”
Omar also declined to directly condemn his father during the interview but called on him 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 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.
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