British Broadcasting Corporation
correspondent Alan Johnston is seen in this undated photo taken in the
Gaza Strip. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
GAZA, April 15 (Xinhua)
-- Palestinian Interior Minister Hanial-Qawasmeh said Sunday that his ministry
doesn't have any information that British journalist Alan Johnston who was
kidnapped in Gaza five weeks ago "was killed".
"We don't have any information confirms that the
kidnapped British journalist was killed," al-Qawasmeh said in a news conference
held in Gaza on Sunday evening.
Earlier in the day, a senior Palestinian security
source also said that the leaflet published in Gaza, which claims responsibility
for executing the British journalist who works for the BBC, is "not credible".
The source, who spoke in condition of anonymity, said
the Palestinian security forces is taking in consideration the issue of
publishing such kind of a leaflet in such circumstance.
"But we usually don't deal with false or rootless
leaflets that no one real is standing behind it," he added.
A group calling itself "the Brigades of Jihad and
Monotheism" said in a leaflet e-mailed to media that it killed Alan Johnston, a
BBC reporter in Gaza who was kidnapped by unknown individual five weeks ago.
The group said "we are sorry to say that we killed
him" after the Palestinian National Authority and the British government
neglected their demands to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli
jails.
Dozens of Palestinian journalists as well as members
of the Journalists Union and the Committee to Protect Journalists set up a tent
in front of Gaza's parliamentary building toward Prime Minister Ismail Haneya's
office four weeks ago to call for revealing information on Johnston.
Eleven journalists have been kidnapped in Gaza over
the past three years. All were released unharmed, most within days of
capture.
UNITED NATIONS, April 12 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for the unconditional and immediate release of
the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)'s correspondent Alan Johnston who was
abducted by unknown gunmen in Gaza a month ago.
Ban said in a statement that he has been closely
following the abduction of the BBC journalist.
"I am deeply concerned. Even after one month of his
abduction, he has not been released," he said. Full story
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