Church painting depicts bin Laden as satan

A fresco in a Romanian Orthodox Church depicts Osama bin Laden as satan riding on an aeroplane to hell, a newspaper reported today.

The painting, depicting bin Laden holding a pronged fork and riding on top of an aeroplane towards the fires of hell, was finished in late September, chaplain Vasile Bica told The Associated Press today. He refused to elaborate.

The church, an Orthodox military chapel in the western city of Timisoara belonging to the Defence Ministry, has tried to avoid publicity centring on the unusual fresco. But Evenimentul Zilei, a national newspaper, carried a front-page photo of the painting today.

Fresco painter Ion Badila told the paper he decided to depict bin Laden as satan after watching the September 11 terrorist attacks on television.

‘‘I was working on the images for ‘Descent into Hell,’ when I saw the terrorist attacks on the America, and people were saying it was the apocalypse and hell on earth,’’ Badila was quoted as saying.