3 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
An Algerian court has sentenced journalist Ihsane el Kadi to five years in prison, a process in which the company Interface Médias has been sentenced to pay a fine and be dissolved for allegedly receiving funds from abroad.
El Kadi and Interface Médias, editor of Radio M and Maghreb Émergent – of which the journalist was director – have also been sentenced to pay one million Algerian dinars (about 6,800 euros) in damages and interest to the Audiovisual Regulation Authority (ARAV), which was one of the plaintiffs, as reported by the newspaper ‘Tout sur l’Algerie’.
The journalist, who has protested against the legal process against him, was arrested at the end of December at his home in the city of Boumerdes. After five days at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Internal Security, he was placed under provisional detention on December 29.
The Prosecutor’s Office demanded a five-year prison sentence against him for allegedly “collecting funds without authorization” and “receiving funds from abroad to commit acts against State security.”
The non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has spoken of “manifest injustice” after the verdict and has stressed that the sentence is “disproportionate and absurd”. Likewise, he has criticized the order for the dissolution of Interface Médias and the seizure of all its materials.
The RSF representative for North Africa, Khaled Drareni, has pointed out that “this totally disproportionate verdict is the logical consequence of the denial of justice that El Kadi has been the victim of since his arrest.”
“This decision taken against a brave journalist and press director who has continued, against all odds, to exercise his profession freely, rightly shocks a large part of the journalistic profession,” he explained, according to a statement published by RSF. .
“This verdict is all the more unacceptable as the prosecution file turned out to be empty and without evidence. Our solidarity with Ihsane el Kadi is total and we hope that the appeals procedure will give the Algerian justice the opportunity to pull itself together and restore the respect for fundamental freedoms, including the right to a fair trial”, has settled.
