Al-Jazeera’s Kabul Bureau Chief, Samer Allawi, remains in Israeli custody on accusations of membership in Hamas, and of posing a risk to Israeli national security, the Doha-based news network told IPI in an emailed statement this morning.

Allawi, a Palestinian national, was told by a court yesterday that his detention will be extended for another eight days for investigations, reports said.

He was originally arrested on 10 August, while attempting to return to Afghanistan following a visit to his family in the West Bank, Al Jazeera sources told IPI.

Allawi’s lawyer, Salim Wakim, told the Associated Press (AP) that his client was pressured by Israeli investigators to act as an informant, and that they “accused Allawi of transferring unspecified items from Afghanistan to the West Bank and of having contact with Hamas militants,” AP reported.

Although Al-Jazeera Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walid Al-Omary told AFP that no official reason for Allawi’s arrest had been given, he told IPI that it seems likely that the journalist was arrested because of his work for the Doha-based news network.

“I can’t find any other reason – they are just trying to punish Al-Jazeera. There are a lot of members of Hamas in the West Bank and no one arrests them,” Al-Omary said.

“I believe that all these excuses from Israeli intelligence forces that they mention in the military court today are not true – they accused him of ties to Hamas and it’s not true,” Al-Omary said, adding that according to Allawi’s lawyer, the journalist was not questioned by the Israelis about any connection with Hamas. “What they did today in the court was because they are looking for an excuse to let the judge to expand the remand,” he said. Al-Omary noted that colleagues were “amazed” that Allawi had been detained.

“The courts should present what evidence they have against Samer Allawi, or immediately let him go,” said IPI Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “Unless the authorities can produce evidence against him, it will continue to appear that he is being targeted because of his connection to Al-Jazeera, and not Hamas.”