/ 3 December 2001

BIN LADEN JOKE GOES DOWN LIKE A LEAD BALLOON

TWO South Africans were arrested on Friday for circulating a hoax note in the home affairs department saying Osama bin Laden had entered the country last month, an official said. An immigration official and a security guard had filed a report on the department’s database saying the main suspect in the September 11 attacks had entered the country on October 31 by road from Lesotho, said home affairs communications director Leslie Moshokwe. They were arrested at a border post between South Africa and Lesotho, where they claimed bin Laden had entered the country, and later released on their own volition. “They were taken in for questioning and confessed to it all. The report even gave his age and passport number as well his temporary residency number,” Moshokwe said. – AFP