Bin Laden's 'Spin Doctor' Was Questioned for One Hour Before He Was Allowed Entry to UK - Report

It only took the UK police an hour to question Osama bin Laden's so-called "spin doctor", Adel Abdel Bary, as he returned to the country after serving his US prison sentence for terrorist activities, the Daily Mail reported.

Bary was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2015, but was released in 2020 on "compassionate" grounds, because it was deemed that his obesity and asthma increased his vulnerability to COVID-19.

In 2021, Bary, an Egyptian national, returned to the United Kingdom to live in a $1 million mansion in London with his wife and children, paid for by the local council. And all it took for him to enter the country was an hour-long interrogation by UK police that included a video call with US officials.

The Daily Mail reported, citing documents that emerged following a review, that it was deemed Bary's mindset and ideological beliefs remained "largely unknown and untested".

It was said that Bary did not wish to re-offend and that he sought to return to the United Kingdom. He challenged his monitoring order imposed by Scotland Yard after his return, claiming that it violated his human rights and worsened the PTSD he developed during his time in an Egyptian prison.

Bary was granted asylum in the UK in 1993 after he fled Egypt, where he claimed he was tortured as a suspected Islamist. London allowed him to remain in the UK indefinitely as a refugee in 1997, with his wife being granted British citizenship.

Later, he became involved with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) - a terrorist cell that later merged with Al Qaeda*. In August 1998, Al Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, with the attack claiming the lives of 224 people and leaving 5,000 injured. The following year, Bary was arrested for his role in the bombings and extradited to the United States.