A man, initially thought to be a brother of Saudi terror suspect Osama bin Laden and taken into questioning in Istanbul, has denied any relation to the wanted militant, Turkish Interior Minister Rustu Kazim Yucelen said Monday.
Yucelen told reporters here that the man, Abdullah Ali bin Laden, had told police during his interrogation that he was not related to bin Laden, the prime suspect of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
"I think he is not [Osama] bin Laden's brother, but officers from both the secret service and police intelligence department will interrogate him thoroughly to see if they are in fact related," Yucelen said.
The minister had earlier announced that Abdullah Ali bin Laden, was hauled into questioning at Istanbul airport when he was travelling from Jeddah to Cyprus via Istanbul.
Yucelen said that the questioned man was a Jeddah-born student who was studying computer sciences at a university in the Turkish-held north of divided island of Cyprus.
Washington believes Osama bin Laden, who has found refuge with the hard-line Taliban militia in Afghanistan, is responsible for the attacks in New York and Washington in which thousands were killed when hijackers rammed two planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon -- ISTANBUL (AFP)
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