‘Bin Laden still alive,' says half-brother

One of Osama bin Laden’s half-brothers today spoke of his belief that the world’s most wanted man is still alive.

And Ahmad Mohammed told a US interviewer that bin Laden does not suffer from life-threatening kidney problems.

The 44-year-old Saudi-born terror suspect has long been rumoured to be suffering from several illnesses including kidney and heart trouble but it has never been confirmed.

Mohammed, a younger brother who shares the same mother as bin Laden, said he last saw the terrorist at a family wedding last year.

Interviewed by CNN’s Newsnight programme, he said bin Laden told him then that he does not suffer from kidney disease and does not require dialysis to live.

Mohammed also said that the bin Laden family has information that he was definitely alive three weeks ago and they believe he is still alive today.

But the family does not believe that bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks.

Mohammed said he could not have been responsible, adding: ‘‘He is my brother, I know him, I know how much he fears God.’’

He revealed that bin Laden’s mother reads every newspaper and television report relating to her son and worries about him constantly.

He said: ‘‘It’s my mother who worries most, she is the most worried about him, 24 hours a day she is worried about him, concerned for him. She is the only one who is constantly thinking about him, more than any of us.

‘‘She’s an expert on the news, more than any media person. She watches all the news and all the different television channels and we get her all the newspapers, the interviews. She’s always discussing it.’’

Despite extensive US-led bombing campaigns and exhaustive ground searches in Afghanistan, bin Laden’s fate remains a mystery.

There have been various reports that he may have been killed in the bombing campaign, holed up in a cave in Afghanistan or alive and hiding in neighbouring Pakistan.