Spain: Allouni denies links to al- Qaida

Teiseir Allouni, a journalist for the Qatari al-Jazeera yesterday announced that he had no connections to al-Qaida organization. This was expressed as he was brought before Spanish judge Paltsar Ghartoun who officially accused him of being a member in al-Qaida organization.

Allouni, who has been jailed since September 5th, seemed quiet, escorted by two policemen at the court hall as he was summoned by Ghartoun.

Allouni's lawyer Jose Louis Ghalan said that his client announced "he had no connection to al-Qaida and he did not take part in operations of financing al-Qaida nor in recruiting activists," as alleged against him. Alloluni asked for "conditional release," according to his lawyer.

He stressed that there is no way for him to escape because all his family is Spanish and his four children live and go to school in Spain and therefore they live the current situation in a bad condition." He expressed his readiness to explain "point by point" the telephone calls that took place between him and presumed members of al-Qaida.

On the other hand, Allouni asked other sides to listen to all registered telephone call together with a Syrian translator with the aim of avoiding translation error he said are in the file. Another judicial source attended the session confirmed Allouni s' statements before the judge.

The lawyer said that Allouni asked for supporting his request to "conditional release" under the pretext "that he will have no interest in escaping because he will loose his professional credibility" to the judge.