Ilhan Omar's Ex-Husband, Rumored to Be Her Brother, Says He's Gay

Ilhan Omar's ex-husband -- who has long been rumored to be her brother -- says he's gay ... adding a new wrinkle to allegations that the Minnesota congresswoman married him to help him obtain legal immigration status.

Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, who married Omar in 2009, identified himself as a gay man in an academic paper published in August ... the latest twist in the controversy surrounding their marriage.

"As a gay man of the East African diaspora, my fieldwork was never neutral," Elmi wrote in the paper, titled "Out in the Field: Notes on Researching Queer Violence in Kenya."

Elmi, a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, discussed his work studying violence against LGBTQ people in Kenya ... explaining how his own identity shaped his experiences in the field.

The revelation comes amid renewed scrutiny of Omar's marriage history ... with critics alleging she married Elmi, a British citizen, to help him obtain immigration papers. The claim that the two are siblings has never been established ... and Omar has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

According to the New York Post, a friend of Omar's former husband, Ahmed Hirsi, claimed Hirsi told him Elmi was Omar's brother from London ... and that their legal marriage was arranged to get Elmi immigration papers while Omar remained married to Hirsi under Islamic law.

Elmi left Minnesota in 2012, and he and Omar finalized their divorce in 2017.

Federal investigators reportedly are now examining possible immigration fraud involving Omar ... after an earlier investigation into the alleged sham marriage reportedly stalled because any potential criminal charges fell outside the statute of limitations.