The family name may be best associated with international terrorism.
But in recent years, Omar bin Laden lived a quiet life in the genteel French region of Normandy painting landscapes.
On Tuesday, however, France banned him from the country for what authorities say were comments “glorifying” 9/11.
Omar, son of Osama, had denounced terrorism to enjoy a tranquil life in northern France married to a British grandmother from Cheshire, but was kicked out of the country in May 2023, authorities revealed on Tuesday.
Bruno Retailleau, France’s new hardline interior minister, said he had now signed an order banning Omar from the country permanently.
“Mr bin Laden, who has lived in the Orne region for several years as the spouse of a British national, posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that glorified terrorism,” Mr Retailleau said.
“The administrative ban ensures that Mr bin Laden cannot return to France for any reason whatsoever.”
The exact nature of the comments that led to Mr bin Laden being barred from France is unclear. However, according to local daily Le Publicateur Libre, an X account with the handle @omarbinladin1 posted on May 2 2023, the 12th anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, a message paying tribute to the mastermind behind the Sept 11 2001 attacks, which destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York City.
Born in Saudi Arabia, where he spent his early years, Omar bin Laden, 43, has also lived in Sudan and Afghanistan. He left his father at the age of 19 and eventually settled in Normandy in northern France in 2016, taking up painting. Mr Retailleau said he had lived in France as a spouse of a British national.
His marriage to Briton Jane Felix-Browne, a grandmother who had been divorced five times previously and is over two decades his senior, had caused considerable media interest when it was confirmed in 2007. After the marriage, she took on the Muslim name of Zaina Mohammed. Omar bin Laden sought to live in the UK, but his bid was rejected by the British authorities.
Through his vibrantly-coloured paintings, he did express a certain nostalgia for his childhood.
“I miss the fun times I had, the times when I was too young to know and too innocent to see the world around me,” he told Vice. “I miss the vast stretches of desert dunes and rolling seas. I miss the peace of childhood.”
In one painting, Omar’s favourite, he depicts the Arizona desert where a cottage and pale green cactus sit under a starry sky.
In another, however, he recreates the spiny mountains of Tora Bora, where his father went to hide in the wake of Sept 11.
Mr bin Laden, who reports suggest suffers from PTSS and bipolar disorder, said he wanted to become an “ambassador for peace” to try to make up for what he called his father’s “big mistake”.
Referring to another of his paintings called The Light, he said: “I think I’m trying to find some light at the end of this dark road. I hope painting will open the light in my life again.”
While he never shied away from his father’s name, Omar had repudiated his murderous religious extremism to embrace art.
Mr bin Laden has repeatedly condemned the Sept 11 attacks over the past 20 years – expressing deep sorrow for the thousands of victims who lost their lives and denouncing al-Qaeda’s savage ways.
“A lot of people think Arabs – especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama – are all terrorists,” Omar told the Associated Press in 2008. “This is not the truth.”
Mr Retailleau, the interior minister, has vowed to restore “order” on immigration and crime and his appointment has been seen as a shift to the Right under Michel Barnier, the new prime minister, following this summer’s legislative elections that resulted in a hung parliament.
He has pledged to lower immigration, “fight political Islam” and said the État de droit, a French concept akin to the rule of law, was neither “intangible nor sacred”.
Mr bin Laden originally settled in France in 2016.
He was subsequently placed under formal investigation after his tweets in 2023, but at the time said the accusations against him were based on “false information”.
Two-year ban
He left France in October 2023 after receiving an order to get out, the French interior ministry added. At that time, Mr bin Laden’s residency permit, which he had obtained through his wife’s British citizenship, was revoked and the 43-year-old received a two-year ban from entering France.
Last Friday, a French court refused Mr bin Laden’s appeal against the order to leave.
Mr Retailleau said on Tuesday he imposed an additional ban to ensure that Mr bin Laden “will not be able to return to France for any reason whatsoever”. The minister said that the jihadist’s son “posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that advocated terrorism”.
Individuals who have received an administrative ban on entry may ask for the measure to be overturned after a year and the interior ministry must reassess the ban every five years.
