April 23, 2005

Al Jazeera Reporter on Trial for Terrorism

I had read several articles on the ongoing terror trials in Spain, but somehow the fact that one of the indicted terrorist is also a reporter for al Jazeera eluded me.

Gulf Times:

The defendants include Tayseer Alouni, a reporter for Arab TV channel Al Jazeera who interviewed bin Laden shortly after the attacks on New York and Washington.

Prosecutors accuse him of carrying money intended for Al Qaeda members during visits he made to Afghanistan for his journalistic work. Alouni says he is innocent.

Now check this out. He was under house arrest. House-freaking-arrest! Too harsh? Ok, lets let him out for good measure. Gulf Times:
Al Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni was temporarily released from house arrest on the first day of a high-profile terrorism trial here yesterday.

Alouni will testify before the court on May 11 to defend himself against charges of belonging to Al Qaeda.

He had been shifted from prison to house arrest on March 17 on medical reasons.

“I am innocent. Whatever the outcome of the trial, I will maintain that until death,” Alouni said.

“The judge’s case always refers to circumstantial evidence, evidence taken from telephone calls in Arabic which were badly translated and even more badly interpreted by the police.”

Yeah, and by 'kill the Zionist Crusador infidels' he really meant 'let's have ice-cream'.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 11:08 AM | |