Bin Laden’s son requests asylum in Spain
Omar Osama bin Laden, 27, is a metals trader who had been living in Cairo, Egypt, with his wife Jane Felix-Browne, 52.
His wife said he was denied a British residency request this year after officials there said he had demonstrated continuing loyalty to his father.
Omar Osama 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.
The 27-year-old — one of the al Qaida leader’s 19 children — arrived in Madrid on Monday on a flight from Cairo, an interior ministry official said.
He had been travelling on a Saudi passport, and remained at the airport yesterday while the ministry considered his request for Spanish asylum.
The official did not know on what grounds asylum was being sought.
The ministry has 72 hours to make a decision, and the petitioner has a right of appeal.
Omar Osama bin Laden caused a tabloid storm last year after marrying Felix-Browne, 52, from Cheshire, who has since taken the name Zaina Alsabah.
The couple later said they were planning a 4,800km horse race across North Africa next year to draw attention to the cause of peace, but the plan was downgraded to a desert horse race within Egypt in light of the difficulties of obtaining permission to cross borders in North Africa.
Omar Osama bin Laden had moved to Afghanistan with his father in 1996 after living with him in Sudan, and trained at an al Qaida camp. But he claims he has not seen his father since he left Afghanistan in 2000.
