Al-Jazeera accuses Israel over detention of bureau chief

Arabic news channel denies Samer Allawi has Hamas links and says his human rights were breached Al-Jazeera has denied allegations that its Kabul bureau chief has links to Hamas and accused Israeli authorities of “blatant breaches of human rights” over its treatment of the journalist. Samer Allawi was detained by the Israeli military for 49 days following a visit to his family in the West Bank. The Arabic news channel’s journalist was released from detention on Monday after a plea bargain resulted in a suspended jail sentence and a £900 fine. A spokesman for al-Jazeera said Allawi faced “false accusations” and suffered “psychological trauma” as a result of his detention. Shin Bet, Israel’s intelligence agency, said Allawi had admitted to agreeing to “to carry out military or organisational activity as required by Hamas”. This included “criticising American actions in Afghanistan and voicing support for the Palestinian ‘resistance’”, the agency said in a statement. The al-Jazeera spokesman denied these accusations. “While Samer has been released, the grounds for his extended detention are inexcusable: the false accusations made against him changed over the weeks as one accusation changed to another, finally settling upon an assertions that a Hamas official made a request to him at an open press conference,” the spokesman said. “Mr Allawi’s detention has been completely baseless. There was no clear process to this military detention. We continue to hold the Israeli authorities responsible for these blatant breaches of human rights and for causing psychological trauma for Mr Allawi, his wife, children, and his extended family through this ordeal.” Salim Wakim, the journalist’s lawyer, said Allawi had refused Hamas requests and that his client had been sentenced for “very, very, very trivial crimes”. Al-Jazeera also claimed Allawi was regularly denied access to his lawyer, his family, and medical attention, and called upon the Israeli authorities to “desist from harassing and impeding al-Jazeera and any other journalists from undertaking their professional responsibilities as reporters”.

Posted by on September 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.