Sheikh Ahmad interview transcript

(CNN) -- The following is a transcript of CNN's interview with Osama bin Laden's half brother Sheikh Ahmad, beginning with Ahmad describing his relationship with bin Laden.

Ahmad: We grew up together in the same house. Osama is known for being a simple person, very merciful, a very soft heart. It's impossible that anyone would sit with him and not like him, or get bored. Frankly Osama is very close to the heart and very popular.

Q: For many people, for the U.S., he is responsible for the killing of thousands of people, a terrorist, a big terrorist. How can you tell these people he is not so?

A: He is my brother. I know him. I lived with him for years. I know how much he fears God. Osama has always been very committed since he was young.

Q: What do you mean committed?

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A: Since his early school years, he would never go to any suspected places.

Q: What is a suspected place?

A: A dirty gathering. He would never sit with dirty people. Osama doesn't lie. He never lied in his life. Everybody would tell you that. Osama never lies. He hates injustice. He likes to have fun. But to him, it has to be innocent fun, picnics, young men together, no contacts [with women]. As a committed person, he has always behaved.

Q: What do you mean when you say "suspected"?

A: Any teen-ager would try different things during his teen years, but not Osama. Since he was really young, he always stayed away from "contact."

Q: What were his hobbies?

A: His hobbies? Picnics, gatherings.

Q: No girls?

A: No, this was impossible, a gathering or a party with girls in it? This is definitely impossible; it's just impossible [laughs].

Q: Why impossible?

A: Since he was young, this is something that's in him, as a religious person, he fears God. He just wouldn't.

Q: But it was reported that he actually had a fun life ... in London, Beirut ... etc.

A: Since he was young, Osama has been committed, throughout his life. We lived in the same house. Since he was very young ... when it came to religious duties, he was very strong-willed. For the sunrise prayers ... he had to perform it and he made sure everyone who was in the house did. ... He would wake up everybody to pray.

No joking about this -- when we were very young, he would wake me up and my sister. We were lazy, we were young, but we had to get up; he was our older brother. He would say ..., "Ahmad, get up, get up." And we would ... we would pray with him and then just go to school, without going back to sleep.

Osama has always been committed. I can't ever remember him doing anything wrong, especially when it comes to religious duties; he was perfect in performing it.

He hated to see injustice done to anybody. [He was] very simple in his life, didn't like prestige; he preferred simple life. Even when he lived in Jedda ... he led a simple life, as if he was living 100 years ago. He would only spend money on what was needed ... no spendthrift.

Q: Hobbies?

A: He loved riding horses, since he was young he loved riding, and he was good at it, and picnics.

Q: Reading?

A: He used to read ... religious books, some sociology ... some business administration. He is a graduate of business administration. He was very smart, very good at school.

Q: What was he best at?

A: The most he was good at, was religion [laughs].

Q: Did you go to the movies?

A: When we were very young ... when we used to go to Beirut. Osama was 12. He used to take us to the movies, but then that was the end of it. Since he turned 14, he stopped going to the movies.

Q: What movies did you see?

A: Cowboy, karate movies.

Q: When was the first time you heard Osama talk politics?

A: Probably 10 years ago.

Q: But he went to Afghanistan before that?

A: That was not politics ... that was Islamic jihad ... a group of young people went.

Q: Were you surprised that he went?

A: Since we knew him very well ... no, we were not surprised, his character would lead to that.

Q: Did you try to stop him?

A: My mother tried ... his big brothers ... but when Osama is convinced of something ... he is very, very stubborn. ... When he puts his mind into something, he will do it.

Q: Do you believe Osama was behind what happened?

A: No, I don't expect that at all.

Q: The U.S. says it has strong evidence, he almost confessed to that.

A: I can't say much, the way I know him ... no way ... he wouldn't.

I say to the Americans, we and any Muslims, any Arabs, condemn these actions. What happened was terrible. Any Muslim wouldn't accept this. In our religion this is not permitted, it's not allowed. As Arabs, as Muslims, we condemn this, and we can't approve of such attacks.

Q: Are you worried? The U.S. is after him.

A: In the beginning we were very worried ... as the days passed ... we got used to it. ... Every day 50 different news [reports] about him. ... It's easier now, we got used to it . ... We know any minute it's possible that we will hear some bad news.

It's my mother who is worried most, God be with her. She is the most worried about him, 24 hours she is worried about him, concerned for him. She is the only one who is constantly thinking of him ... more than any of us.

Q: She watches the news?

A: She is an expert now ... more than any media person. ... She watches all the news, on all the different TV channels. We get her all the newspapers, the interviews. ... She is always discussing it.

Q: Do you think they will catch him?

A: I can't tell, as his brothers, we wish him safety.

Osama, even when he was outside Saudi Arabia ... he never followed a girl or ran after one ... never flirted with any woman. He married when he was 17, his wife was 14, my cousin, since then he has been committed to marriage.

When he got married ... and although I was still very young -- about 9 years old -- he told me, "Now our cousin is my wife ... and you shouldn't see her like before ... that she needed to put the veil on in front of her brothers-in-law.

When he would go down the stairs, and the maid would be going up the stairs, he used to hide his face with his kufiya -- head cover -- so as not to see her ... so that he wouldn't give himself the chance to see her. It's impossible that Osama would look at any other woman.

Q: Did he ever drink?

A: No way.

Q: Did he use to play cards?

A: Not since he was very young, about 15.

Q: Did he go to the girls school ... ran after girls?

A: Not Osama, he never flirted with any girl.

He started working in his father's business since he was 16, 17 ... he was following up on their construction projects of the holy sites in Mecca. ... He used to take me with him. ... We would get up with sunrise ... and then pick up another friend, and then head to work. ... He was very serious about work, and was very fair. All those he worked with will tell you that.

He wouldn't discriminate between the young and the old. ... He is a simple man.

Q: What makes him happy?

A: Now or before? [laughs] He loved his family ... and friends' gatherings. ... He especially adores his mother. First comes God and then his mother. ... That his mother is happy with him ... was very important to him ... something he wouldn't take lightly.