IPI: Another Eight Days for Al-Jazeera Journalist

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IPI Demands Evidence or Immediate Release of Samer Allawi By Naomi Hunt Al-Jazeera’s Kabul Bureau Chief, Samer Allawi, remains in Israeli custody on accusations of membership in Hamas, and of posing a risk to Israeli national security, the Doha-based news network told IPI in an emailed statement this morning. Allawi, a Palestinian national, was told by a court yesterday that his detention will be extended for another eight days for investigations, reports said. He was originally arrested on 10 August, while attempting to return to Afghanistan following a visit to his family in the West Bank, Al Jazeera sources told IPI. Allawi’s lawyer, Salim Wakim, told the Associated Press (AP) that his client was pressured by Israeli investigators to act as an informant, and that they “accused Allawi of transferring unspecified items from Afghanistan to the West Bank and of having contact with Hamas militants,” AP reported. “The courts should present what evidence they have against Samer Allawi, or immediately let him go,” said IPI Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “Unless the authorities can produce evidence against him, it will continue to appear that he is being targeted because of his connection to Al-Jazeera, and not Hamas.”