JEDDAH, 24 October — The Binladen family is contemplating whether to take legal action against British tabloid the Sunday Mirror after it repeated its claim that the interview it published last week with Abdullah ibn Osama Binladen was authentic, Al-Madina reported yesterday.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Abdullah condemned the interview as "false and fabricated". Other Saudi newspapers published the denial by Abdullah with his real picture, which is completely different from the one carried by the Mirror.
"The Sunday Mirror’s report and its insistence on defending it will have a negative impact on the family’s interests and the future of its son (Abdullah)," Al-Madina daily reported, quoting informed sources.
Abdullah told Saudi newspapers that the picture, which appeared in certain British newspapers claiming to be that of Abdullah Osama Binladen, was not his and bore no relation to any member of his family.
The Sunday Mirror carried a picture claiming that it was from Abdullah’s passport and was the person it interviewed in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
The paper also reported that Abdullah had run away from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates on a special flight with his mother Sabeeha, brother Abdul Malik and sister Sameena.
"This report is totally false. I have not been out of Saudi Arabia except to visit Britain last summer," Abdullah told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Abdullah, 24, also stated that he had not been in touch with his Afghan-based father either since he returned to Saudi Arabia from Sudan in 1995.
Asharq Al-Awsat said the interview was Abdullah’s first "public appearance", refuting the claim by London’s Sunday Mirror that it had spoken to him in Pakistan.
