BBC: Bin Laden Bodyguard Gets $1,400/mo. on Germany Welfare

Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden's alleged bodyguard is collecting about $1,400 a month in welfare in Germany, the BBC reported.

The Tunisian man, known as Sami A — German media have not publicly identified him — has been in Germany since 1997 and got a temporary residency permit in 1999, the news outlet reported. In 2005, he moved to the city of Bochum in western Germany, where he now lives with his German wife and four children, the BBC reported.

According to the BBC, at least three of the 9/11 suicide pilots were members of an al-Qaida cell based in Hamburg— and at a German anti-terror trial in 2005, one witness testified Sami A had served for several months in 2000 as one of bin Laden's bodyguards in Afghanistan.

Sami A denied it. He was subsequently investigated for alleged al-Qaida links in 2006, but was never charged.

In 2007, his asylum application was rejected because authorities had listed him as a security risk — requiring him to report daily at a police station, the BBC reported. Deportation to Tunisia was ruled out because of fears he would be tortured there, the BBC reported.

The BBC reported a regional government released the amount Sami A is collecting in welfare after the far-right Alternative for Germany asked about him.

Bin Laden was fatally shot by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

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