France bars Osama bin Laden’s son from entering country

France says he has taken additional steps against any effort by Omar bin Laden, one of the sons of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, to return to the country.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced this in a post on X on Tuesday, October 8, 2024.

Omar bin Laden had been living in France’s Normandy region but left the country in October 2023 after French authorities withdrew his residency papers and ordered him out.

At the time, authorities also barred him from returning to France for two years, the Interior Ministry said.

Retailleau said he imposed an additional ban to ensure that Omar bin Laden “will not be able to return to France for any reason whatsoever”.

The minister stated: “I am today issuing an administrative ban on Mr. Omar Bin Laden, the eldest son of the international terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Mr Bin Laden, who has lived in Orne for several years as the spouse of a British national, posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that were an apology for terrorism.

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“As a result, the Prefect of Orne issued an OQTF and obtained Mr Bin Laden’s departure. The courts have confirmed the regularity of this decision taken for national security.

“The administrative ban on the territory guarantees that Mr. Bin Laden will not be able to return to France for any reason whatsoever.”

French daily Le Parisien reported that Omar bin Laden now lives in Qatar.

It said he had previously been living since 2016 in the Orne region of Normandy with his British wife and had been working as an artist.

The newspaper added that last week he lost a legal battle to overturn the ban on his return to France.

His father Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, was killed in a United States commando operation by U.S. Navy SEALs in 2011 in Pakistan.

The Star