A son of the late 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”.
Mr Bin Laden left France in 2023 after his residency permit was revoked for two years by officials in the wake of the posts.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.
Mr 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 Mr 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.
Born in Saudi Arabia, Mr Bin Laden is the al-Qaeda leader’s fourth-oldest son. He left his father’s side in 2000 after training at jihadist camps in Afghanistan, telling father that he did not want to be associated with the killing of civilians.
He retained complex feelings towards the elder Bin Laden over the following years. His memoir, published in 2009, recalled growing up in often squalid conditions as his father sought to evade international intelligence agencies.
While he renounced his father’s acts of violence across the globe, he has also been accused by some of being an apologist for Osama’s actions, referring to him as a “kind” man who had followed a strict religious and moral code.
After Osama Bin Laden’s death in Pakistan in 2011, Omar Bin Laden claimed US special forces had “violated” international law by not allowing his father to have a proper burial. The Al-Qaeda leader was buried at sea after his remains were brought back to a US base in Afghanistan for identification.
However, friends were quick to condemn his ban from entering France on Tuesday. Pascal Martin, who helped Mr Bin Laden sell his paintings, told the Reuters news agency that he had totally renounced radical Islamism.
“We became friends and I can tell you that nothing that is being said resembles the Omar I know,” he told the outlet.
Interior Minister Retailleau has a reputation as one of the most right-wing members of the new government led by conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
After his appointment in August, he vowed to lower immigration in a bid to “fight political Islam”. Critics said Retailleau’s instalment at the interior ministry was a clear example of the “reactionary right taking power”.
