A donation from the Bin Laden family further embarrasses the Prince Charles foundation
Prince Charles during the throne speech on May 10, 2022 in London.
© AP/Alastair Grant
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
According to the
Sunday Times
, the Prince Charles Foundation has received a donation of one million pounds (1.2 million euros) from the family of Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
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According to the
Sunday Times
, the case dates back to 2013, two years after the death of the mastermind of the attacks of September 11, killed during a special operation of the American forces in Pakistan.
The Prince Charles Foundation accepts a donation of one million pounds from Bakr and Shafik bin Laden, half-brothers of Osama bin Laden.
According to the British newspaper, the heir to the English crown himself would have received Bakr bin Laden at his residence in Clarence House.
According to the sources quoted in the
Sunday Times
article , several of Prince Charles' advisers pleaded for the foundation not to accept this payment from the wealthy family of the mastermind of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The foundation does not deny this donation colossal, but stresses that the decision to accept it was taken by the five administrators, after demanding checks.
Although the Saudi family members who disowned Osama bin Laden are not suspected of a possible offence, this information heightens the attention surrounding the Prince Charles foundation which is under investigation of Scotland Yard launched in February.
This investigation aims to establish whether donations to the Prince Charles Foundation were rewarded with honorary titles and were used to support a request for naturalization by a Saudi businessman, Mahfouz Marei Mubarak ben Mahfouz.
The affair had been revealed last year and had splashed the heir to the 73-year-old British throne.
His former assistant valet Michael Fawcett, reputed to be very close to Charles, is suspected of having used his influence to help the Saudi businessman ben Mahfouz, a generous donor to charities linked to the British monarchy, to obtain a decoration .
Mr. Mahfouz, who denies any wrongdoing, is said to have donated large sums of money to restoration projects.
Michael Fawcett resigned in November 2021.
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An investigation was also launched last November by the English regulator of charities to examine whether the Mahfouz foundation, of the rich Saudi businessman, had received donations which were intended for that of Prince Charles.
“
The investigation will examine whether certain donations received by the Mahfouz foundation were intended for the organization, whether they were used in accordance with the intention of the donors and whether they should be returned
,” the commission explained at the time. .
The Prince Charles Foundation, created in 1986, is however not regulated by this commission, but depends on the Scottish regulator of charities.
The latter also opened an investigation, but on several hundred thousand euros from a Russian donor this time.
The Bin Laden Group, Saudi Arabia's largest building empire founded by Osama bin Laden's father in 1931, has grown rich for decades thanks to its closeness to the royal family.
He is now crumbling in debt.
(
With
AFP)
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