A son of the al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been banned from returning to France, the country’s interior minister has announced.
Omar Bin Laden, 43, has spent years living in Normandy in the north of France, where he has earned a living painting landscape portraits.
But new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he signed an order barring him from returning to France, accusing him of authoring social media posts last year which “glorified terrorism”.
Bin Laden left France in 2023 after his residency permit was revoked for two years by officials in the wake of the posts. French media reported that the dispute related to content marking the anniversary of his father’s death.
Bin Laden has lived in France since 2016, earning a residency permit through his marriage to UK citizen Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah – born Jane Felix-Browne.
But Retailleau said the order now permanently banned Bin Laden from returning to France “for any reason whatsoever”. He reportedly returned to Qatar after his expulsion from France, where he had previously lived with his wife. (BBC)
