Tayseer Allouni
Tayseer Allouni (
Life
Alluni was born in Deir ez-Zor, Syria in 1955 and went on to obtain a bachelor's degree in economics from a Syrian university. He traveled to Spain in 1985 to continue his studies but due to economic hardships he worked as a trader instead. He married in 1987 and is a father of five children.
After becoming a Spanish citizen in 1988 he held a number of jobs in Spain, including teaching Arabic and working in the municipality taxation office of the city of
After the US bombing of the Al Jazeera office in
Work
Highlights of his career include
- working as a correspondent for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan; he was the only international correspondent in Bamiyan by the Talibanin March 2001
- interviewing Osama bin Laden on October 21, 2001 [2]
- being deported from Iraq prior to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
- being arrested in Spain while investigating the Madrid train bombings
- sentenced by September 11th attackson the United States.
- set free on 6 October 2006 under home detention due to his medical condition.[3]
- interviewing Abu Muhammad al-Golani, the head of al-Nusra Frontin Syria on December 19, 2013
Prosecution after the 2004 Madrid train bombings
On Monday September 26, 2005, a Spanish court found Alluni guilty of collaboration with al-Qaida, sentencing the Syrian-born, naturalized Spaniard to seven years in jail.[4] Allouni, who insisted on his innocence throughout Europe's biggest al-Qaida trial, interviewed the group's leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan weeks after the September 11 attacks in the United States.[5] Accused of acting as a financial courier to the group while in Afghanistan, Alluni, who had faced a maximum nine-year term,[citation needed] said in testimony he was only doing his job as a journalist. A campaign regarding his innocence has been mounted by amongst others Al Jazeera and the Arab Commission for Human Rights.[6] On January 17, 2012, a European court decided that the seven-year term Allouni was given over charges of collusion with a terror organization was not legal.[7] He was freed in March 2012, and returned to Doha.[8]
He has now continued working in Doha and reunited with his family which he continues to raise, despite the long prison sentence he received.
References
- ^ A dangerous subject, Leslie Crawford, July 14, 2006 Financial Times
- ^ "Document – The unreleased interview with Usamah bin Laden". english.religion.info. July 20, 2002. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ Excarcelan por salud al periodista de Al-Yazira preso en España, Reuters, 6 October 2006
- ^ "Spain jails al-Jazeera reporter". BBC News. 26 September 2005. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "Terror accused tells of Bin Laden interview". the Guardian. 26 September 2005. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "Al Jazeera Too Close to Terror". ABC News. 24 September 2003. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "European court: Al Jazeera's Alluni trial illegal". Doha Centre For Media Freedom. 19 January 2012. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "Freed Al Jazeera journalist back to Doha". Al Jazeera English. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
External links
- Al Jazeera Appeal
- ABC Article
- Arab Commission for Human Rights
- Aljazeera - Special Reports: Taysir Alluni ongoing coverage about the detention of their journalist
- CNN - Transcripts: Al-Jazeera Arrest September 5, 2003
- alleged translation of his interview with Osama bin Laden
- FreeTayseer.com support group with petition
- [1]
- Ongoing coverage in Spanish