Police in Istanbul on Monday took into questioning a brother of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Turkish Interior Minister Rustu Kazim Yucelen said.
"Osama bin Laden's brother, Abdullah bin Laden, was taken in by police at Istanbul airport when he was travelling from Jeddah to Cyprus via Istanbul," Yucelen told reporters here.
The minister said Abdullah bin Laden was a student in Cyprus, but did not give any further details, such as why he was being questioned by Istanbul police.
Yucelen also did not say which side of divided Cyprus Abdullah bin Laden was flying into, but Cyprus flights from Turkey land only in the Turkish-held north of the island.
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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