Omar Bin Laden, son of the terrorist Osama Bin Laden, is targeted by an OQTF after having made remarks in 2023 relating to “apology of terrorism”. According to a source close to the case, the man left the territory on his own a year ago.
The new Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau pronounced this Tuesday, October 8 on Al-Qaïda.
“The prefect of Orne took out an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) and obtained the departure of Mr. Binladin,” added Bruno Retailleau on X.
According to information from BFMTV, Omar Bin Laden, a Qatari national, arrived legally in France on June 1, 2018. After obtaining a multi-year residence permit on July 13, 2021, which authorizes him to stay in France at least until On July 12, 2026, he settled in Normandy before leaving the territory in 2023 for Qatar.
Following a message posted on social networks on the occasion of the anniversary of his father’s death on May 2, 2023, Omar Bin Laden is notably accused of “apology for terrorism” and targeted by an OQTF.
Bruno Retaillau’s recent statement marks the end of the legal actions initiated by Omar Bin Laden to contest his expulsion. According to a source close to the matter, the man however left the territory in 2023 on his own to settle in Qatar.
Accused of “apology of terrorism”
According to an administrative decision of October 4, 2024 that BFMTV was able to consult, the man will later explain that the tweet was not written by him, but comes from a “trusted person” who lives in Yemen and in who he would have given his access codes. But according to the judge, Omar Bin Laden “neither sought to withdraw (these remarks) or to condemn them publicly, nor to denounce their supposed author.”
During a hearing with the director of citizenship and legality and the head of the integration and immigration office in October 2023, Omar bin Laden indicated that he had left Al Qaeda at the end of 2000s to reach Syria. According to the man, he last saw his father at his headquarters in Afghanistan in 2001 when he was 20 years old.
On October 27, 2023, the prefect of Orne finally decided to withdraw his multi-year residence permit from Omar Bin Laden and issued him an OQTF on the same day within a maximum of 30 days, prohibiting him from returning to France for a period of 2 years.
This Friday, October 4, the Caen Administrative Court rejected the appeal made by Omar Bin Laden and his lawyers contesting his expulsion. The Qatari national still has two months to appeal.
“A calm guy”
Interviewed by The Point in 2021, Osama Bin Laden’s son said he “totally disagreed” with his father, believing that September 11 had “ruined his life”. While he had joined training camps in Afghanistan to become a “fighter”, he claimed to have finally left his father in 2000.
“That’s all I rejected, because I’m not an aggressive person. I could never have done that. You can fight when there’s nothing left to discuss, but you always have to discuss before,” he told the weekly.
In a report produced in 2021 by BFMTV, Omar Bin Laden’s Norman entourage described him as a discreet man, living far from his father’s footsteps. “He’s a calm, quiet guy,” said Harry, one of his friends. “He is simply looking to integrate into a new community and start a new life among us.”
During confinement, Osama Bin Laden’s son, now 43 years old, devoted himself to his passion: painting. “We were at home, not doing much. My wife was painting and I said to myself that I should try,” he told France 3 Normandy in 2022.
The same year, Omar Bin Laden exhibited his works at a flea market organized at Le Teilleul in La Manche. Most of the paintings trace his childhood spent in his native country, Saudi Arabia, before he left at the age of 10 with his father to Sudan, then to Afghanistan. “It was the most difficult period of my life,” he told France 3.
A painting “becomes a part of yourself”, revealing “something of me (who) lives in Afghanistan”, he declared on local television.
Thanks to the painting, Omar Bin Laden said he was “pacified” and “freed from responsibility” for the acts committed by his father, considered the main person responsible for the attacks that hit the United States on September 11, 2001.