LONDON: Britain’s Prince Charles is facing more questions about his charitable work as a newspaper has claimed that one of his organizations donated 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) to Osama bin Laden’s relatives. accepted. The Sunday Times reported that Prince Charles’ charitable fund had received funds from Bakr bin Laden and his brother Shafiq, a member of a large and wealthy Saudi family, in 2013. Both are half-brothers of bin Laden, a former al-Qaeda terrorist. Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.
The newspaper said advisers had urged Prince Charles not to accept donations. Charles’ Clarence House office disagreed but confirmed that the donation had been received. She said the decision to accept the money was made by the charitable fund’s trustees, not the prince, and that “a thorough investigation was done before accepting this donation.” The fund’s chairman, Ian Cheshire, also said that At the time the donation was ‘absolutely’ agreed upon by the five trustees and ‘any attempt to make a different claim is misleading and false.’
The Prince Charles Charitable Fund for Charitable Work was established in 1979 and provides grants to a wide variety of projects in the UK and around the world. Charles, 73, has faced several claims about his philanthropic conduct. Last month, the Sunday Times claimed that Prince Charles, the heir to Britain’s throne, had allegedly accepted suitcases full of $3 million as a donation from former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.
London police are currently investigating a separate allegation that people linked to the Prince’s Prince Foundation offered to help a Saudi billionaire acquire citizenship in exchange for donations. Clarence House has said that Charles is not aware of any such proposal.
