AMY GOODMAN: We wrap up the show on the Spanish court sentencing of the al Jazeera correspondent, Taysir Allouni, to seven years in prison after convicting him of collaborating with al Qaeda. We go now to Spain to Lamis Andoni, longtime independent reporter. Welcome to Democracy Now!

LAMIS ANDONI: Hi, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. We only have a minute. Can you tell us about the sentencing of this al Jazeera reporter?

LAMIS ANDONI: Yes. Three years ago, Taysir was detained and charged with first, innocently, belonging to al Qaeda and then collaboration with al-Qaeda. And when we discovered that it was [ inaudible ] evidence, mostly phone calls that they were monitoring, and they tried to reconstrue those phone calls to indict Taysir. And although the hearings proved him innocent of those — like that, the phone calls were — had proved nothing. Then they started talking about his interview with bin Laden. He had an exclusive interview with bin Laden a few weeks after 9/11, during the bombing of Afghanistan, and for obvious reasons, because he was the only TV journalist in Kabul, because al Jazeera had had an office in Kabul for two years before 9/11 or two years and a half, as well as because Allouni at the time was the [inaudible] and al Jazeera for the interview since al Jazeera had had an agreement then with —- about information sharing and including the interview with CNN. So during the hearing, the prosecution came -—

AMY GOODMAN: We have 20 seconds. Lamis, we have 20 seconds.

LAMIS ANDONI: Yeah. Okay. He used the interview to try to prove that Taysir [inaudible] collaborations with bin Laden. And we think at al Jazeera that these are foundless allegations. Al Jazeera stands by Taysir.

AMY GOODMAN: Lamis Andoni, we’re going to have to leave it there, but we’ll continue to follow this story. Lamis Andoni, who works with al Jazeera.