PARIS, Oct 2: Yeslam bin Laden, the Geneva-based businessman who is a half-brother of Osama bin Laden, has been interrogated by French police on a charge of money laundering.

Mr Yeslam heads the SICO (Saudi Investment Company), a group that manages a large part of the holdings of Binladin Group (SBG), the company that was founded by Osama’s father.

The interrogation, which took place secretly in Paris last week, was done in the presence of one of Mr Yeslam’s attorneys, say French police, who note that they had long wanted to interrogate the man with regard to possible money-laundering by bin Laden family interests in France.

Yeslam was interrogated as an “assisted witness”, in accordance with a procedure that does not require a person to be charged with a crime or be incarcerated to prevent him from leaving the country. Mr Yeslam was allowed to return to Geneva at the end of his interrogation, police said.

The French justice ministry decided in December to investigate the bin Laden family’s financial activities in France when they were tipped off by a special wing of the finance ministry - Tracfin - that is devoted to the tracking down of suspcious money flows in and out of France.

Officials at Tracfin said at the time that they had come across a number of “suspicious” transfers of funds, via Paris, between different companies linked to Saudi Investment Company and Yeslam bin Laden.

The group’s major interests are in the power and construction sectors, and besides building superhighways and airports, it has undertaken the expansion of mosques in Makkah and Madina.

Yeslam had denied last fall any involvement in money-laundering or support of terrorism.