France deported Omar bin Laden this week, a son of the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, over accusations of glorifying terrorism on social media.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau accused Omar bin Laden of “posting comments on his social media accounts in 2023, which made an apology for terrorism”.
He was deported from a Normandy village he was living in. He had been living in Normandy with his wife — a woman identified as a UK national — since 2016. According to the local press, the pair regularly traveled between the UK and France.
French newspaper Le Parisien reports that Omar bin Laden is now living in Qatar. The publication added that bin Laden had launched an appeal against his deportation, which was denied by French justice last Friday.
The ban ensures that bin Laden “cannot return to France, for any reason whatsoever,” Retailleau said.
Bin Laden: My Twitter password was hacked
According to local newspaper Le Publicateur Libre, a controversial tweet was posted by bin Laden on 2 May 2023, the date of his father’s birthday.
The post from the now-deleted account @omarbinladin1 read: “History is written only with the blood of these people — to tell the story of these martyrs who made history, built nations and brought glory. Their blood is the lifeline of our faith until judgment day. Rest in peace.”
Bin Laden claimed that his account was hacked. “A person from another country managed to get the password of my Twitter account and posted a Tweet using my name. They were not my words. I reported the Tweet to Twitter and after a week or so, the account was thankfully blocked,” bin Laden said.
The terrorist’s son-turned-painter
Omar is the son of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born founder of the al-Qaeda terrorist group and the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people in the biggest terror attacks on US soil in 2001.
Reports suggest the Saudi-born terrorist had 24 children, although there is speculation about the exact figure.
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, bin Laden turned to painting, selling his artwork for €800 to €2000. He even told local newspaper Le Publicateur Libre that he had plans to open a restaurant.
Although Omar bin Laden began training in al-Qaeda camps at the age of 14, he left the terrorist organization in 2000. In a 2008 interview with ABC News, he said, “my father is very kind man… and he was very sorry when he did something like 11 September.”
“He believed if he brought two buildings down, maybe some people, few would die… But millions other would (be) save(d). He believed that”, Omar added.
Omar bin Laden went on to assert that he did not agree with his father’s actions “I believe what he did was wrong.”
Related: 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Debunked