Yeslam bin Ladin

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Yeslam bin Ladin (exact names "Binladin" in Saudi Arabia, and "Ben Laden" in the U.S.) (b. October 19, 1950) (Arabic: يسلم بن لادن‎) is the half-brother of Al-Qaeda terrorist group leader Osama bin Laden.

1 Family Background and early life
2 Current activities
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links

[edit] Family Background and early life

Yeslam bin Ladin is a Saudi national of Persian and Yemeni heritage (through his mother and father, respectively). He has 54 half brothers and half sisters, including 2 younger brothers (Ibrahim and Khalil) and a younger sister (Fawzia) by the same mother as him, Rabab Haguigui. They live in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His father Mohammed bin Laden died when he was 18 years old.

He has lived in Switzerland since the mid-1980s, and became a Swiss citizen in April 2001. He speaks Arabic, English, French and Persian. He is a Sunni Muslim and is said to live a mainly Western lifestyle.

After his divorce from Carmen bin Ladin in January 2006 after 15 years of procedure. An ex-girlfriend of his, Catherine Berclaz, an swiss interior decorator wrote a book on their relation "Yeslam, my love. In the heart of Binladen family". His last and ex girlfriend, Fabienne Zufferey, was a Swiss model. Carmen bin Laden wrote an autobiography, Inside the Kingdom (ISBN 0-446-69488-6), which was a New York Times Bestseller, recounting her life in the Bin Laden family and how she managed to keep her daughters in her custody. He has three daughters, Wafah Dufour (31 years old), Najia (29 years old), and Noor (19 years old), and has reportedly not spoken to them for more than ten years because of their western customs.

After attending high school in Beirut, Lebanon, Bin Ladin studied economics at Göteborg University, Sweden, and business administration at UCLA. On February 25, 2005, he was granted permission by the Swiss government to use the name bin Ladin to brand products for his business including perfume for men and woman dubbed "Yeslam", handbags and accessories under the name "The World of Yeslam". Shops opened in Geneva, 2 in Jeddah, 2 in Riyadh, Mecca and Damman (Saudi Arabia). He engaged Creators and chose the creations, he is not Designer.He has pilot's driver forming as his father and some of his brothers. He possesses his private jet (a Learjet).

[edit] Current activities

Since 1980 Yeslam has been chairman of the Geneva, Switzerland-based Saudi Investment Company (SICO), which represent's his family's Saudi Binladin Group's international financial interests.^[1]. His fortune was estimed at 300,000,000 of Swiss francs, but now less than 100,000,000 {Bilan Swiss Newspaper).