http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/04/europe/spain.php
Omar Osama bin Laden, right, with his British-born wife, Jane Felix-Browne, now known as Zaina Muhammad Al-Sabah. (Nasser Nasser/The Associated Press) Bin Laden son seeks asylum in Spain By Victoria Burnett Published: November 4, 2008 MADRID: One of Osama bin Laden's sons, who made headlines last year when he married a British woman, is seeking asylum in Spain, the government said Tuesday. Omar Osama bin Laden, 27, arrived at Madrid's Barajas International Airport on Monday on a flight from Cairo bound for Casablanca, Morocco, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said. The spokeswoman said that bin Laden was traveling on a Saudi passport and was being held at the airport in a special center for asylum seekers. Under Spanish law, the government had 72 hours to decide whether to allow him to stay, she said. If he is granted provisional asylum, bin Laden may remain in Spain while his case is reviewed. If his petition is denied, he has one day to file an appeal. It was not immediately clear on what grounds bin Laden, a self-declared pacifist who is the son of the Al Qaeda founder and his first wife, Najwa Ghanem, was basing his asylum claim. Bin Laden, who wears his hair in long braids and shares his infamous father's arched brows, caused a media storm in Britain last year when he married Jane Felix-Browne, then 51, who took the Muslim name Zaina Muhammad al-Sabah. She met bin Laden during a trip to Egypt in April last year and married him in September, according to news reports at the time. Bin Laden was refused a visa by the British Embassy in Cairo in April because of what the authorities perceived to be his loyalty to his father, which would "cause considerable public concern" in Britain, according to The Associated Press. He was said in those reports to have gone into exile with his father in Sudan and Afghanistan, but returned to Saudi Arabia before the Sept. 11 attacks. One of 19 children fathered by Osama bin Laden, Omar is the fourth-eldest son, according to several news reports. "I am proud of my name, but if you have a name like mine you will find people run away from you, are afraid of you," he told CNN in January, urging his father to "find another way." Britons have been especially sensitive about Al Qaeda since four suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London transit system on July 7, 2005. In a video recording made before the attacks, one of the bombers, Muhammad Sidique Khan, declared loyalty to "our beloved sheik, Osama bin Laden." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
