Two Palestinian journalists employed by Iranian TV freed on bail after being held for 10 days on spying charges

Reporters Without Borders hails today's release of two Palestinian journalists employed by the Iranian Arabic-language TV station Al-Alam, who were held by the Israeli authorities for 10 days on spying charges. However, they were freed on bail and are still accused of “revealing secret information” and “transmitting information to the enemy in war time.” “The disproportion between the nature of the charges against these two journalists and their conditional release after 10 days leads us to question to quality of the evidence available to the Israeli authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The authorities should think twice before going ahead with a prosecution of such a serious nature.” Khader Shaheen, a Jerusalem resident and Al-Alam correspondent, was summoned for questioning by the Israeli police on 5 January for reporting the start of Israel's land offensive against the Gaza Strip on 3 January before the Israeli censors lifted the news embargo on this development. His assistant, Mohammed Sarhan, accompanied him to the Petah Tikva police station, near Tel Aviv, in order to give evidence in his defence. After questioning them, the police placed both of them under arrest. When they were taken before a judge the next day, he ordered them held for another six days for further investigation. Another two days of detention were ordered in a subsequent hearing. They were formally charged on 13 January. Their lawyer, David Derri, finally managed to get them released today after payment of bail. However, they have been placed under house arrest and are forbidden to do journalistic work of any kind until their trial, for which no date has yet been set.