Saleh urges Spain to free detained Al-Jazeera correspondent [Archives:2008/1125/Local News]
MADRID, Jan. 30 ) President Ali Abdullah Saleh urged the Spanish government to release detained Al-Jazeera correspondent Taysir Alluni, who has been detained more than four years in a Spanish jail for allegedly collaborating with Al-Qaeda operatives, local media reported Wednesday.
This came as part of Saleh's official three-day visit to the European Union member state this week, during which he met with Spain's King Juan Carlos to discuss a variety of issues and matters concerning both countries.
Arriving in Spain Monday, Saleh was expected to renew Sana'a's offer to hand over to Madrid Nabil Nankali, a Spaniard of Syrian origin, to Spanish authorities. Nankali was arrested in Yemen in 1997 on terrorism charges, along with a number of suspects. A Yemeni court sentenced him to death in 1998.
President Saleh asking Alluni release in exchange for handing over Nankali
A Spanish court imprisoned Alluni in 2005 after accusing him of acting as a financial courier to Al-Qaeda while in Afghanistan.
A Spanish national of Syrian origin, Alluni is best known for his interview with Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite television largely financed by Qatari authorities, has always insisted that he is innocent.
During his talks with the king, Saleh also urged the Spanish government to play an effective role in pressuring Israel to cease its aggression against the Palestinian people and lift its lockdown of the Gaza Strip, because according to Saleh, such action may help boost the comprehensive Middle East peace process and reinforce international legitimacy resolutions.
Saleh has pledged his government's support in the fight against terrorism, having renewed such a vow following a suicide bombing last July that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemenis.
The Spanish king praised Yemen's efforts to capture the killers of eight Spanish tourists whose convoy was bombed in the historic city of Marib, located some 240 kilometers east of Sana'a. Both governments on Tuesday stressed their interest in boosting all types of cooperation, including the fight against terrorism, Spanish media reported.
In this vein, the two countries will sign cooperation agreements in sectors including health care, tourism and protecting investments, Spanish media quoted Carlos as saying at a news conference regarding Yemen's contributions to Spanish culture when the European country was largely under the rule of Muslim Moors more than 500 years ago. The entire Yemeni delegation attended the press event.
Expert Gema Martin Munoz acknowledged that Yemen had made “a notable contribution to Andalus culture,” as the Muslim part of Spain was known.
Carlos warmly received Saleh at Zarzuela Palace, the royal residence on the outskirts of Madrid, at noon Tuesday. The two were to later lunch with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who also was to conduct talks with the Yemeni leader that evening at government headquarters.
Last April, the Yemeni and Spanish governments signed an agreement in the fields of education, science and culture, under which the two nations would develop their relations by exchanging educational materials and research.
On the same front, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratino and his delegation, who visited Yemen at that time, met with President Saleh, discussing aspects of cooperation between the two countries in fields of tourism, energy and fisheries, in addition to topics related to security and counterterrorism.
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