Will Charles be probed over £1m from Bin Laden family?
PRINCE Charles was accused of a ‘serious lack of judgment’ yester-day after it emerged his charity accepted £ 1million from the family of Osama bin Laden.
It received the donation after Charles had a private meeting with the terror-ist’s half-brother Bakr bin Laden in 2013 – two years after the al Qaeda leader was killed by US special forces.
the Charity Commission is likely to face calls to investigate in light of the revela-tion. Royal sources denied reports that Charles, 73, had ‘brokered’ the donation, or that he agreed to it in the face of oppo-sition from his advisers.
Clarence House said the trustees of the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (PWCF) had agreed to accept the donation with-out the prince’s involvement, and that they carried out ‘thorough due diligence’.
But the latest revelation comes only weeks after it emerged the PWCF accepted more than £2.5million in cash donations, said to be stuffed in bags and suitcases, from a former Qatari prime minister.
and it raised further questions about the fundraising activities of the prince’s charity, and why it accepted money from the Bin Laden family.
Former Government minister Norman Baker said: ‘Prince Charles continues to show a serious lack of judgment about whom he will accept money from.
‘Is there in fact anyone he would refuse money from? Is this really appropriate behaviour from the heir to the throne?’
the Bin Laden family publicly disowned Osama bin Laden in 1994, before it emerged his al Qaeda network had carried out the 9/11 attacks.
Both the PWCF and Clarence House said the £1million donation was made and accepted, but said it was accepted by the charity’s trustees, and not by the prince.
Sources denied reports that Charles had accepted the dona-tion, and had done so despite objections by advisers – including at least one trustee – who pleaded with him to return the money.
Royal sources also denied claims
that one of Charles’s household staff told the prince ‘it would not be good for anybody’ if it emerged he had accepted money from the Bin Laden family.
the PWCF said it had ‘carefully considered’ the donation and
accepted only after seeking infor-mation from a range of sources, including the Government.
Charles was reportedly intro-duced to Bakr bin Laden by Saudi royal Prince Khalid bin Faisal al-Saud in June 2001. the pair met again in October 2001 – four weeks after the 9/11 attacks – and dined at Charles’s home Highgrove to discuss the Islamic faith.
the two met again at Clarence House in October 2013, and the meeting was noted in the official Court Circular. the Sunday times alleged Charles ‘ brokered’ the £ 1million donation after that meeting, although the claim was denied by royal sources.
there is no suggestion that Bakr bin Laden, 76, had any involve-ment in terrorism.
a PWCF source said its trustees had carried out ‘a thorough exam-ination of the issues’ and decided that the actions of one member of the Bin Laden family ‘should not tarnish the whole family’.
PWCF chairman Sir Ian Chesh-ire said the decision to accept the donation was taken by the five
‘Due diligence was conducted’
trustees and that no wrongdoing was committed.
He added: ‘Due diligence was conducted, with information sought from a wide range of sources, including Government. the deci-sion to accept the donation was taken wholly by the trustees. any attempt to suggest otherwise is misleading and inaccurate.’
a spokesman for Clarence House said: ‘the PWCF has assured us that thorough due diligence was undertaken. the decision to accept was taken by the charity’s trustees alone and any attempt to characterise it otherwise is false.’
the Charity Commission declined to comment.