Charitable Foundation Prince of Wales Charlesthe eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, accepted donations of £1 million ($1.2 million) from relatives of the founder of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia) Osama bin Laden, reports The Times.
According to the newspaper, the prince received money from Bakr bin Laden and his brother Shafik, half-brothers of the ex-al-Qaeda leader. Charles met with Bakr at Clarence House, the Westminster residence of the British royal family, on October 30, 2013, two years after Osama bin Laden was killed by American special forces.
Charles agreed to accept donations over the objections of his advisors and foundation staff. According to the Times, advisers urged the prince to return the money; they warned that the event would cause public outrage if it became known to the media. In addition, Charles’s reputation would be damaged “if his name appears in the same sentence as the name of the terrorist responsible for the murder of 67 Britons and thousands of Americans on September 11, 2001.”
However, the prince, the newspaper writes, refused to return the money, considering that it would be too embarrassing. Charles feared that donors would understand the true reason for the return of funds.
Fund chairman Sir Ian Cheshire told the publication that the donation from bin Laden’s relatives was approved by five of the organization’s trustees, including former BT Group chairman Michael Reik, ex-head of the British Barclays bank John Varley and William Nighy, who was then the prince’s chief personal secretary.
According to the Times, there is no suggestion that Bakr or Shafiq bin Laden sponsored or participated in terrorist attacks.
They are the sons of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a Yemeni-born billionaire who became the richest non-royal Saudi after founding the construction conglomerate BinLadin Group. He died in a plane crash in 1967, when Osama bin Laden was ten years old.
Bin Laden’s relatives disowned him even before the death of the ex-al-Qaeda leader, but they are still associated with the founder of the terrorist organization, the newspaper notes. Previously, data on donations by members of the bin Laden family to charitable organizations were not disclosed, they do not appear in public documents. Charities are not required to disclose information about their donors.
In late June, the Times reported that Prince Charles personally accepted donations for his foundation from Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani between 2011 and 2015. Their total amount was €3 million, cash was packed in bags and a suitcase. As the newspaper noted, “there is no suggestion that the payments were illegal.” A spokesman for Clarence House confirmed that “all due process had been followed”.
“Russian service of the BBC”, 02/16/2022, “The police of London opened a case against the Prince Charles Foundation”: The London Police have announced that they have launched an investigation into the charitable foundation of the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles. The point is that the leaders of the fund may have helped their donor, a Saudi billionaire, receive the Order of the British Empire. A police statement released on Wednesday said the investigation was launched under the Abuse of State Awards Act, after evaluating reports last year that the Prince’s Foundation offered to help a Saudi national obtain an award and then British citizenship. . […]
Last September, several British newspapers received information that Michael Fawcett, a former personal assistant to Prince Charles and then director of his foundation, helped Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz become a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (this is the third degree of the order, which does not give the right to knighthood and prefix “sir” to the name), and then in a confidential letter promised to help with obtaining British citizenship. Prince Charles dedicated the Saudi to the commander in 2016, and Fawcett wrote the letter that the newspapers got hold of in 2017. Mahfouz himself says that he did nothing illegal. According to the Sunday Times, he donated large sums to the foundation’s restoration projects, which were especially taken care of by Prince Charles himself. In early December last year, Fawcett resigned as director of the Prince’s Foundation, first temporarily and then permanently. — Inset K.ru