Aljazeera to appeal Alluni's conviction

Pan-Arab satellite channel Aljazeera has said it will appeal after a Spanish judge sentenced its correspondent Taysir Alluni to seven years in prison for collaborating with al-Qaida.

"The verdict is very disappointing and we consider it unfair and we will contact immediately the legal defence team to study the possibilities of appealing it," Aljazeera general manager Waddah Khanfar said on Monday.

The channel said it was an unjust sentence and a dangerous and unprecedented action in the history of journalism.

Alluni, who had insisted on his innocence throughout Europe's biggest al-Qaida trial, interviewed the group's leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan weeks after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States.

Accused of acting as a financial courier to the group while in Afghanistan, Alluni, who had faced a maximum nine-year term, said in testimony he was only doing his job as a journalist.

AJ