Yeslam bin Ladin

Yeslam bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Ladin ( _ar. يسلم بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن; born October 19, 1950) better known as Yeslam bin Laden, also written Yeslam Binladin, as he prefers to spell it [ [http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/059/article_31542.asp RFI - Société - Les senteurs d’un Ben Laden ] ] [Citation
url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/07/20/ftbin20.xml&sSheet=/arts/2004/07/20/ixartright.html
title=The acceptable face of the bin Ladens
date=July 20, 2004
publisher=telegraph.co.uk
accessdate=2008-09-21] , is a Saudi businessman and the half-brother of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

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 17 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. An ex-girlfriend of his from 1993 to 2001, Catherine Berclaz (41 years old) she is with short colored blond hair with blue eyes, is a Swiss interior decorator who wrote a book on their relationship, "Yeslam, My Love: In the Heart of the Bin Laden Family". His second and ex-girlfriend (35 years old), from 2002 to 2007, is Hélène Zufferey an ex-model, from a Swiss father and an Italian mother (Bergamo in Lombardy and Vercelli in Piedmont, Northern Italy). She is with long colored blond hair and black eyes. From 2006 she was a trainee lawyer (attorney-at-law) in Geneva. His last girlfriend is Nawal al Idrissi, she is from Lebanon with long curly black hair and black eyes.

He divorced his wife Carmen bin Ladin in January 2006, after 15 years of separation. 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, Najia and Noor, and has reportedly not spoken to them for more than 15 years because of their western customs. Wafah (Dufour) Binladin earned a law degree from Geneva University and a masters degree from Colombia Law School in New-York. In 2006 she appeared in a mens magazine GQ. She has lived New-York and now in London. She is with long curly colored blond hair with black eyes.

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 a perfume for men and women dubbed "Yeslam" and a second one for women "Passion", handbags, accessories and watches under the name "Yeslam". Shops opened in Geneva (1), in Jeddah (2), in Riyadh (1), in Mecca, in Damman (1) (Saudi Arabia) and in Kuala Lumpur (Malaisia). He engaged Creators and chose the creations but he is not Designer. He has a pilot's license like his father and owns a Learjet.

Current activities

Since 1980 Yeslam has been chairman of the Geneva, Switzerland-based Saudi Investment Company (SICO), which represents his family's Saudi Binladin Group's international financial interests. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/family.html frontline: hunting bin laden: who is bin laden?: about the bin laden family | PBS ] ] . His fortune was estimated to have peaked at 300 million Swiss Francs, but is now thought to be below 100 million. [Bilan Swiss Newspaper] .

He has been a partner of Pakistani businessman Akberali Moawalla. [cite web
url = http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,359831,00.html
journal = Der Spiegel
date = June 6, 2005
title = Meet the Bin Ladins, Part II]

References

Further reading

* Bin Ladin, Carmen. " [http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0446577081 Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia] ", Warner Books: New York.

External links

* [http://www.yeslam.ch The World of Yeslam, with photo in Magazine]
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5403841 Yeslam Interview with photo]
* [http://www.wafahdufour.net Wafah Ben Laden personal website, his Daughter]