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Wednesday 2 March 2016 - 06:14

Osama bin Laden’s will shows Saudi Arabia suported al-Qaeda

Story Code : 524926
One of the offices of the Saudi Binladin Group in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
One of the offices of the Saudi Binladin Group in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The alleged handwritten will is part of a cache of 113 documents translated and released by US intelligence agencies on Tuesday. It is the second tranche of documents seized from his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, when he was killed in 2011.
 
    In the will Bin Laden indicates that he had around $29 million in Sudan, collected from various sources including his brother “Abu Bakr Muhammad Bin (Laden) on behalf of Binladin company for investment in Sudan.”
 
The company is run by the Bin Laden family, which has close ties with Saudi Arabia's ruling family. Known as the second-largest construction company in the world after French firm Vinci Construction, the Jeddah-based conglomerate was founded in 1931 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden, the father of the slain al-Qaeda leader, who had purportedly been disowned by the family the 1990s.
 
The current whereabouts of the amount is still unknown, but Bin Laden expressed that one percent of the money should go to Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, a senior Qaeda militant with the nom de guerre Abu Hafs al Mauritani.
 
Specific amounts are also allocated to other associates and family members.  
 
    He called on his close relatives “to spend all the money that I have left in Sudan” to further terrorist activities around the world.
 
The collection also includes correspondences with his subordinates concerning terrorist activities and a series of personal letters and draft speeches.
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