Prominent radio journalist sentenced by Algerian court
A court in Algeria on April 2nd sentenced Ihsane El-Kadi, a prominent journalist in the country, to five years in prison, accusing him of receiving foreign funds with an aim to threaten state security, according to Reuters.
The case, however, is controversial as the evidence against the radio journalist is questionable and many will suspect to be trumped up charges, in line with the current purge in the country against anyone who criticizes the president.
On April 2nd, the sixty-year-old journalist listened to the ruling of the judge in the Sidi M’Hamed court without any reaction which ruled that his media company be dissolved and that he pay a fine of 40,000 USD.
Ihsane El-Kadi, who directs Radio M, considered “the last and fragile space for free debate in Algeria” by Le Monde, was arrested on the night of 23rd December at home in Zemmouri.
Ihsane El-Kadi, who has been facing constant judicial harassment for more than three years – he was sentenced, in June 2021, to six months in prison without a warrant for an opinion article on the place of Islamists in the Hirak.
El-Kadi’s lawyers said they are going to appeal the mmore recent judgment within the required timeframe.
Ihsan had strongly protested against being described as “khabardji” (an informant) by the country’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during a television interview last February. His lawyers considered Tebboune’s comments as directed to the judges, saying that the journalist’s indictment did not include the charge of “espionage.”
And as for the “foreign transfers” of cash which he is alleged to have received, there also seems to be some over zealous actions by the state prosecutor who appears not to bothered about diligence.
El Kadi’s lawyers said the only foreign transfer to his company had been from his daughter who lives in the United Kingdom and who had transferred 30,000 British pounds to the company to pay the salaries of employees.
Reuters/Maghrebi
