A year ago, I filed a criminal defamation complaint against Yeslam Bin Laden in the High District Court of Paris, France, after he had made various defamatory statements during an interview published in November 2005.
On February 5, 2007 the French investigative judge issued an “Order for Trial” stating that Yeslam Bin Laden has been indicted and that he is now ordered to appear on trial, an interesting development coming after years of legal harassment against me from Osama Bin Laden’s half-brother.
Yeslam Bin Laden’s companies have been under investigation in France for potential money laundering and terrorism financing since 2001. In December 2006 the case was dismissed for lack of evidence after the Swiss authorities refused to communicate banking records relating to the case. During the course of the French investigation, I appeared as a witness and revealed that Yeslam Bin Laden had maintained a joint bank account with Osama Bin Laden in Switzerland until 1997, while he previously denied having had "any contact with his half-brother for the past 20 years".
UPDATE:
Previous JCB posts on current proceedings and legal decisions against Yeslam Bin laden:
- JCB files criminal complaint against Yeslam Bin Laden
- JCB criminal complaint against Yeslam Bin Laden
- Swiss Supreme Court decision against Yeslam Bin Laden (On my book)
- Swiss decision dismissing Yeslam Bin Laden complaint (On accusations of secrecy violation)
AFP story on Yeslam Bin Laden's order for trial:
AFP (Agence France Presse)
Bin Laden’s half brother to be tried for “complicity of slandering”
PARIS Feb 16, 2007
Businessman Yeslam Binladin, half-brother of the chief of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network Usama Bin Laden, is ordered for trial before the correctional Court of Paris for “complicity of slandering” towards an investigator working for the families of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Mr. Binladin, who insists that his name be spelled this way, will be judged at a date not yet announced for remarks published by VSD magazine in its edition of November 30 to December 6, 2005.
The author of the interview and the director of the weekly magazine are also ordered for trial by Parisian judge Michele Ganascia, in a decision of February 5.
The interview of VSD was related in particular to hearings of Mr. Binladin by financial judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke within the framework of an investigation on the accounts of the businessman.
The judge inquired into a possible transfer of funds of $300 million between Switzerland and Pakistan that could have benefited Usama Bin Laden from his half-brother.
The magistrate decided to withdraw the case in January without having been able to conclude his investigations, Switzerland refusing to provide banking documents he required.
This investigation followed declarations of a private investigator, Jean-Charles Brisard, retained by lawyers of the families of September 11.
“The judge speaks a lot with Jean-Charles Brisard who hates me. He is trying to set everything on fire and make me take the blame. He is nervous that I am winning my lawsuits against him. He wants to create doubt”, explained Mr. Binladin in the interview with VSD.
“His business is to manufacture stories. His book (“Bin Laden, the Forbidden Truth”, note) was prohibited in Switzerland. Under the pressure of justice, he had to remove more than twenty-five pages that were untrue and defamatory towards me”, also stated the businessman.
Jean-Charles Brisard filed a libel complaint for these remarks in explaining that he had never lost a single procedure against Mr. Binladin and that no decision was ever taken to cut twenty-five pages for writings about him.
The AFP story was also published in French AFP_YBL_FR.pdf, Spanish and German
The Counterterrorism Blog posted a story on this issue on February 18. You can read it here: French Court Orders Defamation Trial For Usama bin Laden's Half-Brother, Yeslam
