Algerian Journalist Ihsane El-Kadi Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for "Foreign Financing of His Business"
(MENAFN) Prominent Algerian journalist Ihsane El-Kadi has been sentenced to three years in prison for "foreign financing of his business" by an Algerian court. El-Kadi was the director of the Maghreb Emergent news website and radio M, and was one of the last independent media bosses in the North African nation. The court in Algiers handed him a five-year sentence, two years of which are suspended. The company Interface Medias, which published El-Kadi's two outlets, has also been dissolved and its assets confiscated. The company was fined 10 million dinars (about $73,500), and El-Kadi himself was fined 700,000 dinars separately.
El-Kadi's lawyer, Abdelghani Badi, has said that he will appeal the sentence, but the defense team boycotted Sunday's session over the "absence of just trial conditions." El-Kadi was accused of "receiving sums of money and privileges from people and organizations inside the country and abroad in exchange for carrying out activities that could harm state security," following his remand in December.
El-Kadi faced up to seven years in prison in line with an article in Algeria's penal code which criminalizes anyone who receives "funds, a grant or otherwise ... to carry out acts capable of undermining state security." However, Amnesty International has said that the accusations against El-Kadi were "trumped-up state security related offenses."
The sentencing of El-Kadi has been denounced by rights groups as a violation of freedom of the press and an attempt to silence voices of dissent. Amnesty International's Amna Guellali has stated that El-Kadi's detention by Algerian authorities is "yet another example of their ruthless campaign to silence voices of dissent through arbitrary detention and the closure of media outlets."
This is not the first time that the Algerian government has been accused of suppressing freedom of the press and dissenting voices. In recent years, several journalists and activists have been arrested and imprisoned in Algeria, and media outlets have been shut down.^[2] The sentencing of El-Kadi is a worrying sign for the state of press freedom in Algeria, and it remains to be seen how this case will be resolved.
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