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Bin Laden son under investigation at Cairo airport

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-09 08:43

CAIRO, Egypt – The son of al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden was questioned at the Cairo airport by Egyptian officials on Saturday after his application for asylum in Spain was rejected, said an airport security official.

Omar Osama bin Laden is seen during an interview Jan. 11, 2008. [Agencies]

Omar Osama bin Laden sought asylum in Spain, claiming he wound not be safe if returned to an Arab country. Spain said his application did not meet its requirements. Bin Laden, 27, and his wife were then sent back to Egypt, where they have lived for the past year.

Egyptian officials said they were opening an investigation to determine what prompted the couple to seek political asylum in Spain.

The Egyptian airport official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said a decision had not yet been made to allow them in the country.

Zaina Alsabah, the younger bin Laden's 52-year-old British wife, said by phone that the couple had applied for asylum in Spain because their residency permits in Cairo were not renewed and they had been threatened.

"We knew we weren't safe, if we stayed (in Egypt) we would be imprisoned," she said. "Our lives are in danger, we've been threatened already. We've been threatened by two princes in the Bin Laden family."

The Bin Ladens are an influential construction family in Saudi Arabia. Alsabah has appealed to Saudi King Abdullah to protect them.

"We believe that the king could help us and the king could give us protection," she said.

The younger bin Laden, 27, flew to Spain on Monday with his wife and asked for asylum, spending a week in a transit area at Madrid's Barajas Airport while his case was considered.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba confirmed that bin Laden's son had been deported, saying his application for asylum did not meet any Spanish requirements. The Interior Ministry denied his bid on Wednesday, and turned back the appeal Friday night.

The government says it usually seeks a recommendation from the U.N. refugee agency in asylum request cases, and that the agency had also recommended against asylum.

Omar Osama bin Laden — one of the al-Qaida leader's 19 children — caused a tabloid storm last year after marrying a British woman, a 52-year-old who changed her name to Zaina Alsabah.

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.

Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghan border region.

The younger bin Laden moved to Afghanistan with his father in 1996 after living with him in Sudan, and trained at an al-Qaida camp. But Omar has said he has not seen his father since he left Afghanistan in 2000 and returned to his homeland of Saudi Arabia.