Evening Standard, Jan. 22, 2003
http://www.thisislondon.com/
By Patrick McGowan, Evening Standard
Hardline cleric Osama bin Laden. And they want to know if he profited from book and video sales at the mosque, raided by anti-terrorist police early on Monday.
A source said: “Outwardly Hamza lives quite a frugal life but we strongly believe he uses several different identities in order to claim benefits in addition to those he is legally entitled as a British citizen and for his disabilities.”
Hamza says he has not worked since he lost an eye and both forearms while, he claims, he was clearing mines in Afghanistan in 1993.
The cleric gained British citizenship from his marriage in 1984 to a British woman. He is now divorced.
When questions about the benefits he claimed were first raised he said: “I have never lived off their money. I paid lots of taxes to the non-believers while working as an engineer.”