BIN LADEN'S BROTHER-IN-LAW 'AN IRISH CITIZEN' By Mark Sage, PA News Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen was tonight forced to admit that the Government had granted Irish citizenship to a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden. Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz was given an Irish passport along with nine associates in 1990 by the then Prime Minister Charlie Haughey in "dubious" circumstances, the Irish Parliament heard. Sheikh Mahfouz went on to channel millions of dollars into bin Laden's network through front charities, it was claimed. When opposition Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Jim O'Keeffe raised the issue with Mr Cowen last week, the minister said no such citizenship was granted. But today, Mr Cowen was forced to apologise to the Dail (Irish Parliament) and explained that a misspelling by one of his officials had brought up wrong results on a computerised search. "I made a statement on Wednesday in good faith on the basis of information supplied to me by my officials. A more extensive search of the passport office records on the following day revealed that passports were issued to this group on December 8, 1990," Mr Cowen said. "All the passports expired on December 8, 2000, consequently the issue of revoking them, that was also raised by Deputy O'Keeffe, does not arise," he added. But Mr O'Keeffe tonight demanded that even though the passports had run out, the citizenship of Sheikh Mahfouz, whom he described as a "major international crook", should be revoked. "Evidence has been produced that Sheikh Mahfouz has been a major financial backer of the international terrorist network headed by his brother-in-law, Osama bin Laden," he said. "It is bad enough that the name of Ireland should be have been besmirched by granting citizenship to international crooks. It is totally unacceptable that we should issue passports, giving Irish citizenship to those who are associated with and financially supporting Osama bin Laden." Mr O'Keeffe told the chamber that Sheikh Mahfouz has channelled millions of dollars to bin Laden through the front organisations Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief. And he described the "dubious" circumstances in which the passports were granted. It has been claimed that Mr Haughey handed the passports to the Sheikh personally in a central Dublin hotel. The Moriarty Tribunal has been set up to probe allegations of a passports for sale scandal between 1989 and 1994. "What is clear at this stage is that in a matter of about three days between December 6 and 9, 1990, the applications were completed, naturalisation finalised and passports issued, despite the fact that the applicants did not comply with the requirements in relation to residency or production of evidence of good character." He added: "If Ireland is to have any credibility in the fight against international terrorism the Minister for Justice must immediately revoke the Irish citizenship granted in dubious circumstances." Mr Cowen said the reason for the error was that the search capabilities of the computer system were outdated and the misspelt name could not be picked up by the software unless a date of birth was given. The system is being upgraded.