The journalist of the daily Echourouk Elyaoumi, Belkacem Haouam, was placed Thursday, September 8 in preventive detention by the investigating judge of the court of Husein-Dey, in Algiers, after a complaint from the Ministry of Commerce.
The facts of the case go back to Wednesday, September 7 when the Arabic-language newspaper Echourouk published an article signed by journalist Belkacem Haouam and titled “Immediate stoppage of the export of Algerian “Deglat Nour” dates”.
The article reported elements of a meeting “held on August 29 by order of the Prime Minister, which brought together the Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, Kamal Rezig, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Algerian customs, date exporters and members of the National Foreign Trade Agency (ALGEX)”.
The information cited in the article in question was denied and disputed, Wednesday, in a press release, by the Ministry of Commerce and thus reserved “its right to sue the journalist and his employer newspaper”.
On Thursday, the journalist was summoned by the judicial police and presented before the public prosecutor, then before the court of instruction, who immediately placed him in preventive detention. According to sources in the newspaper, quoted by Radio M, “the journalist was brought before the prosecution and the investigating judge in the absence of a lawyer”.
RSF demands the release of the journalist
This Friday, Reporter Without Borders published a press release on its Twitter account and “demands his release and recalls that the Algerian Constitution decriminalizes press offenses”.
