Gaza group issues conditions for release of BBC reporter

An obscure Palestinian group claimed in a tape released Wednesday that it was holding BBC correspondent Alan Johnston and demanded as a condition of his release that the British government free a jailed Muslim cleric.

If confirmed, the statement would be the first public demand made by kidnappers since Johnston was seized March 12 at gunpoint in Gaza City. The BBC said the tape includes a picture of his identification card but not one of Johnston himself.

The recorded statement, by a group called Army of Islam, was provided to the Arabic-language television channel Al Jazeera, which passed it on to the BBC.

“We demand from Britain that it release our prisoners and particularly Sheik Abu Qatada the Palestinian, and in this regard we do not forget our prisoners in other infidel countries,” the statement said, Al Jazeera’s English-language website reported.

Abu Qatada, a Jordanian national of Palestinian origin whose full name is Omar Mahmoud Othman, is a radical cleric held by Britain on suspicion of links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. He has fought deportation to Jordan, where he was convicted in absentia on terrorism-related charges.

The Army of Islam first surfaced last June, as one of the three Gaza-based groups that claimed responsibility for the capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit during a cross-border raid. The militant group Hamas’ military wing and the Popular Resistance Committees also claimed responsibility. Shalit, 20, is thought to be held in Gaza.

The Army of Islam is linked to the Dagmoush clan, some of whose members are suspected in a wide range of criminal activities in the Gaza Strip. The family has feuded with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government.

The purported kidnappers did not provide proof that Johnston is alive.

“We remain concerned for Alan’s well-being and call for his immediate release,” the BBC said in a statement posted on its website.

Johnston, 44, was abducted while on his way home from his office in Gaza City. The duration of the abduction and the conduct of the kidnappers have set the case apart from others. More than a dozen foreign journalists and aid workers have been captured during the last year and a half, but most were released in a matter of hours. Captors demanded money or jobs in the Palestinian security forces.

This time, the kidnappers remained silent for weeks. There have been unconfirmed reports that the captors demanded $5 million in ransom. Palestinian Authority officials said they had received no direct demands.

“We are still asking them to release him without conditions,” said Ghazi Hamad, a government spokesman. He said the authenticity of the tape released Wednesday had not yet been determined.

A group calling itself the Tawhid and Jihad Brigades claimed to have killed Johnston last month, but that appeared to be a hoax. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, said last week that officials believed they knew where he was being held but had not attempted a rescue, at the urging of British officials who feared the journalist might get hurt.

Palestinian and foreign journalists in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel have staged rallies to draw attention to Johnston’s abduction and to the growing threat they face in Gaza because of the breakdown in law and order.

Many foreign journalists cut back trips to Gaza after two Fox News journalists were held for two weeks last summer. The Dagmoush group was suspected of being behind that abduction.

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ellingwood@latimes.com