Hamas releases British reporter

The Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza yesterday released a British reporter, the only foreigner to be arrested by the group since it seized power in 2007 after driving out forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
The journalist and filmmaker Paul Martin was handed over to a delegation from the British consulate and driven in a diplomatic vehicle to the Erez crossing with Israel, an AFP photographer said.
He was arrested on February 14 in a Gaza courtroom while testifying for a friend accused of “collaborating with Israel.” Zaim said he was being held on an unspecified “security charge.”
Britain had expressed concern over Martin’s case, as had the Jerusalem-based Foreign Press Association, which said he had been freelancing in the region for the past five years and was also a filmmaker.
The Hamas-run interior ministry had accused Martin of “violating Palestinian law and security in the Gaza Strip,” without providing further details.
Hamas, which swept the last Palestinian parliamentary elections held in January 2006, remains blacklisted by the European Union and the United States as a “terrorist organisation.”