Bin Laden's son refused entry into Egypt

Osama Bin Laden’s son and his British-born wife were refused entry into Egypt today after being denied asylum in Spain yesterday.

Egyptian authorities put the couple on a plane to Qatar on Sunday after denying him entry into the country, a security official at Cairo’s airport said.

Omar Osama bin Laden, 27, and his British wife arrived at Cairo International Airport over the weekend after he unsuccessfully tried to seek political asylum in Spain, claiming he would not be safe if he returned to an Arab country. The couple had lived in Egypt for the past year.

Egyptian authorities at the airport decided to deny them entry and instead sent them to the Gulf Arab country of Qatar, said the security official.

There was no immediate comment from Qatar authorities, and it was not known whether they would be granted entry once they arrived there. It also was unclear why the two had not tried to go to Britain, because the younger bin Laden’s wife is a British citizen.

Omar Osama bin Laden – one of the al-Qaida leader’s 19 children – caused a tabloid storm last year after marrying 52-year-old Jane Felix-Browne, who has since taken the name Zaina Alsabah.

In an interview with Spain’s El Mundo newspaper before her husband’s deportation, Mrs Alsabah said her husband was very upset about the possibility of being sent back.

“Omar is very depressed,” she said. “He says it would be better to be dead.”

The couple have been living in Cairo. The younger 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.

Mrs Alsabah said that the couple applied for asylum in Spain because their residency permits in Cairo were not renewed and they had been threatened.

Spain’s interior minister has confirmed that bin Laden’s son was deported because he asylum application did not meet any Spanish requirements.