19 November 2004

DOHA- Al-Jazeera television has reported the re-arrest in Spain of its star reporter, Tayssir Alluni, who was charged there last year with membership in the Al-Qaeda terror network.

"I was surprised that they arrested him again," Alluni's wife, Fatima, told the Qatar-based channel. She accused top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon of  making the case "a personal affair" and demanded her husband's release "because there is no new evidence" against him.

Alluni, a Spaniard of Syrian origin, was first arrested on 5 September 2003 at his family home in the southern city of Grenada.

Alluni was one of 35 people -- including bin Laden -- charged in September with links to, or membership of, the Islamic network and using trips to Kabul to forge links with Al-Qaeda.

Suffering from a heart defect, he was released on bail the following month.

Alluni found fame with exclusive reporting from Afghanistan during the US-led war on the Taliban launched in October 2001, interviewing bin Laden and later reporting from Baghdad on the war in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera has consistently stood by its reporter since his arrest and has accused the United States and Israel of inciting Spain to incriminate him.
 
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news