Osama bin Laden’s son gets banned from entering France

PARIS — Omar Binladin — son of the former top al Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden — must find a new permanent home after being booted out of France.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced Tuesday that Binladin, who left France last year, was now banned from entering the country due to posts in 2023 which were “hosted on his social media pages” allegedly containing messages “glorifying terrorism.”

French law prohibits “presenting or commenting favorably either terrorism in general or terrorist acts already committed.”

According to a past report from 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 Center in New York City.

Bin Laden’s son was subsequently placed under formal investigation, but at the time said the accusations against him were based on “false information,” the report said.

Binladin left France in October 2023 after receiving an order to get out, the French Interior Ministry added. At that time, Binladin’s residency permit, which he had obtained through his wife’s British citizenship, was revoked and the 43-year-old received a two-year ban from entering France.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 Binladin’s appeal against the order to leave.

After the court decision, Retailleau then pronounced an “administrative ban on entry” which “ensures that Mr. Binladin cannot return to France for any reason whatsoever,” he said.

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.

Retailleau, one of the most hard-line figures in France’s new right-wing government, has repeatedly sought to draw attention to himself through provocative statements and policy proposals since taking office in September.

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.”

Binladin originally settled in France in 2016. In a 2022 interview with French television, he described his newfound passion for painting and said he felt “freed from the responsibility” of his father’s actions.