London – A British woman said Wednesday that she has married Omar bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader’s fourth son, after they met in Egypt last fall.
Jane Felix-Browne, a 51-year- old divorced grandmother from Moulton, Cheshire, in northwestern England, told British media she met bin Laden, 27, while riding a horse near Egypt’s Great Pyramid and they married in April. The Times and Sun newspapers, which initially reported the story, said she was in Egypt for medical treatment for multiple sclerosis at the time.
The couple has held Islamic marriage ceremonies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Felix-Browne said. She said she is his second wife – Islam allows men to have up to four wives.
There was no independent confirmation of her claim that she married him or that he was indeed Osama bin Laden’s son. The Sun printed a copy of what it said was their wedding certificate and pictures purportedly showing the couple in Egypt.
Felix-Browne, who also uses the name Zaina Mohamad, is a parish councilor, with three children by previous marriages and five grandchildren. This would be her sixth marriage.
She said she was hoping to arrange a visa for her new husband to visit Britain but acknowledged it would be difficult.
“Because my husband’s name is bin Laden, he finds it very difficult to travel anywhere,” she told The Sun.
She told ITV’s “GMTV” program Wednesday that she would one day like to meet her father-in-law to find out if he really is the mastermind behind the atrocities he is accused of.
“You know, the newspapers say he did it, and certain newspapers say they don’t know, so I would ask, that is one question I would ask. ‘Did you do it?’ Because I don’t know,” she said in a telephone interview from her British home.
Felix-Browne said she married the son, not the father.
“I just married the man I fell in love with – to me he’s just Omar,” she told The Times. “I hope people will take a step back and think what it is like when they fell in love.”
Felix-Browne said her husband, a scrap dealer and one of 18 brothers, was raised in Sudan and Afghanistan after his father left Saudi Arabia. She said the father and son last met in Afghanistan in 2000.
