Bin Laden's half brother denies links to terrorism
A half brother of Osama bin Laden says his whole family condemned him for his acts and his convictions.
Yeslam Binladin, one of 54 brothers and sisters of bin Laden, denied suggestions his Geneva-based financial company, Sico, is handling terrorist money.
The weekly news magazine l'Hebdo has reported the company's capital inexplicably fell from several million francs to a few hundred thousand last summer in the lead up to the attacks.
Binladin, who intentionally spells his name differently from his brother, told Swiss television this was because the company had changed from a financial to a services company.
"Sico is a financial company that manages my personal fortune and that of some of my brothers and sisters," he said.
Binladin said he had started legal proceedings against l'Hebdo.
"We are not a family of terrorists," Binladin said.
Binladin, 51, was born in Saudi Arabia, one of the children of Mohammed Ben Oud Ben Laden and his 22 wives.
He said he had only met his half brother three or four times in his life before Osama left Saudi Arabia in 1981.
"The only difference between him and us at that time was that he was a bit more religious," he said.
