Osama bin Laden’s son deported from Egypt
The couple were not allowed to enter Egypt on their return from Spain which on Saturday turned down the 27-year-old’s request for political asylum after he said his life was in danger in the Middle East because he is a pacifist.
“The Spanish government said that Omar was safe in Egypt and so had a place to go, but when we arrived in Egypt they deported us,” Zaina said by telephone from a passenger plane on Cairo airport’s tarmac.
She declined to say where they were heading as it might jeopardise their chances of being able to clear immigration at their destination.
“We’re not feeling very good, seeing that everything we have is in Egypt and we can’t get anything, can’t get [credit] cards, we just have cash.”
Omar, one of the 19 children of the fugitive founder of the al-Qaida terror group, had appealed against Spain’s refusal on Wednesday to grant him asylum, which he asked for shortly after arriving in Madrid on a flight from Cairo. But the Spanish authorities deemed that his security was not in danger and he returned to Cairo, where the couple have been living for several months, late on Saturday.
Omar bin Laden, who has a Saudi passport, is the fourth child from Osama bin Laden’s first marriage.
Omar’s wife, whom he married in 2007, is British, having changed her name from Jane Felix-Browne.
Omar was refused permission to live in Britain in April because of the alleged trouble his arrival might cause. He says he has not spoken to his father since 2000, when he decided to leave a training camp in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden’s consent.
