MADRID: One of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden s sons has asked for political asylum in Spain, an interior ministry spokesman said Tuesday, confirming a report in top-selling daily newspaper El Pais.
Omar bin Laden, who has urged his father to give up arms, is currently at Madrid s Barajas airport where his request will be examined, the spokesman said.
He will stay there until a decision is reached, he told AFP.
The 28-year-old made the request after arriving in Spain on Monday on a flight from Cairo where he lives, El Pais reported. He had been on his way to Casablanca in Morocco, it said.
The interior ministry spokesman did not say on what grounds Omar was seeking political asylum.
In April British authorities turned down a request for a settlement visa from the 28-year-old, who wanted to live in England with his new British wife, Zaina Alsabah bin Laden, 52, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne.
The British embassy in Cairo said it had based its decision on fears that his presence in the country would cause considerable public concern.
Omar is the fourth of 11 children born to his father s first wife, and he is one of 19 children Osama bin Laden has fathered.
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 said during an interview with CNN in January in which he called on his father to find another way. -AFP
