Monday, August 02, 2004

U.S. forces arrest Sunni editor

US occupation forces in Iraq have arrested Dr Muthana Harith al-Dhari the editor of al-Basaer newspaper (Insight) and media officer for the influential Association of Muslim Scholars.

"US forces arrested Muthana Harith al-Dhari this morning as he turned up at the Um al-Quraa mosque, the headquarters of the committee," Ahmad Abd Al-Ghafur al-Sammarai of the AMS, Iraq's leading Sunni authority, said.

"This is the work of the occupation forces. They're here to intimidate and terrorise people not to rebuild our country," he added.

..."We were on our way to the headquarters of the AMS, going out from the studio of the LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation), where Dr al-Dhari had given an interview.

"A US patrol emerged suddenly and stopped our convoy. They searched the cars, and then asked us to step aside and called for reinforcements.

"A number of Humvees arrived with detecting devices. They gave us body scans, and told us that Dr Muthana and two of his companions were to be arrested because the device detected remains of explosives on Dr al-Dhari's hands."

Abd Al-Karim said the group was enraged at the US's allegations and stressed that Dr al-Dhari was a guest in a TV interview.

"The US soldiers at the scene told us either we shut up, or we would be arrested with Dr al-Dhari," he said.

..."It appears that he was arrested for saying something in a broadcast interview that the US occupation authorities did not like," Ahmad said.
  Aljazeera article

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!