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Islam Channel CEO released after arrest

The CEO of the UK broadcaster Islam Channel has been released by police in South Africa.

Mohamed Ali Harrath was arrested on 24th January after arriving at Johannesburg�۪s O.R. Tambo airport from London.

An Interpol notice was placed on Harrath’s passport after he was convicted on criminal and terrorism-related charges in his home country.

According to Bloomberg, Harath was released earlier today. “This man has been freed,” Musa Zondi, a spokesman for the Hawks unit which carries out special investigations, said today in an interview from Cape Town. “Mostly because we have not received anything from the Tunisians. We had 48 hours to continue justifying his arrest before the magistrates.”

Harrath’s heart condition, for which he had been hospitalised, “encouraged us” to release him, Zondi said. “You don�۪t want to have someone�۪s blood on your hands.”

A free-to-air English-language service that also broadcasts in Africa, Asia and continental Europe, the Islam Channel is said to be watched by the majority of the two-million-plus Muslims in the UK.