Al-Jazeera website reporter freed for lack of evidence after six months

Palestinian journalist Awad Rajoub, a reporter for the Arabic-language website of the satellite TV station Al Jazeera, was freed on 24 May after being held by the Israeli authorities for six months. He was arrested on 30 November 2005 at his home in Doura, 10 km outside the West Bank city of Hebron, and accused by the Israeli military of “threatening state security.” The Al-Jazeera bureau in Paris told Reporters Without Borders the Israeli court that was supposed to try him ruled there was insufficient evidence and ordered his release. The Israeli authorities, who had seized his computer and mobile phone, had said his arrest was not linked to his work as a journalist. “I was beaten and treated like an all-out criminal,” Rajoub said after his release. Aged 29, he also writes for the Qatari newspaper Al Sharq and the Islam-on-line website. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.12.2005 Israeli military urged to explain arrest of Al Jazeera website reporter in West Bank Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of Palestinian journalist Awad Rajoub on 30 November at his home in Doura, 10 km from the West Bank city of Hebron, and called on the Israeli military to explain why he is still being held. Rajoub reports for the Arabic-language website of the pan-Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera. “The Israeli army, which claims this has nothing to do with Rajoub's work as a journalist, must say what it knows at once, otherwise there is no reason for holding him and he must be freed immediately,” the press freedom organisation said. Israeli soldiers took Rajoub's computer and mobile phone when they arrested him. An Israeli army spokesman told Al Jazeera he was arrested for “reasons that have nothing to do with his work” and that the army was “interested in the information he has.” Khaled Amayri, an Al Jazeera English-language website editor in charge of Jerusalem and Palestinian territory coverage, told Reporters Without Borders that Rajoub's arrest was “fresh evidence of the Israeli army's discriminatory policy towards Arab media in the occupied territories.” He added: “Journalists are working in very difficult conditions in the occupied territories and are often arrested and then released without anyone knowing what they are accused of. What's more, not only are we often stripped of our accreditation but we are also often told it is treason to work for Al Jazeera.” Aged 29, Rajoub is also a correspondent for the Qatari newspaper Al Sharq and often contributes to the Islam-on-line website. He studied journalism in Qatar and joined the Al Jazeera group in 2001.