JEDDAH, 22 October — Abdullah ibn Osama Bin Laden reiterated yesterday that the picture, which appeared in certain British newspapers claiming to be that of Abdullah Osama Bin Laden, was not his and bore no relation to his family.
“I don’t think that the Western press is that credulous to believe that a Muslim man will name two sons with the same name,” Abdullah said while talking to Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic newspaper at the office of its sister publication Arab News.
Abdullah refuted as baseless the report carried by the Sunday Mirror that he had run away from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates on a special flight.
“This report is totally false. I have not left Saudi Arabia except to visit Britain last summer,” he told the Arabic daily.
Abdullah, 24, earlier told Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview, that he had not been in touch with his Afghan-based father since he returned to Saudi Arabia from Sudan in 1995.
The Arabic daily 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.
Abdullah had already been quoted by the Saudi daily Al-Madina on Oct. 17 as denying that he had given an interview to the British tabloid, which quoted him as saying his father, the world’s most wanted man, would never be captured by the US-led forces.
