The Algiers Court of Appeal on Sunday significantly increased a sentence against the press boss Ihsane El-Kadi, imprisoned since December, by imposing a sentence of seven years in prison, including five years, two years more than in the first case.
“A shocking and incomprehensible verdict”, wrote on Twitter the representative of the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Khaled Drareni, announcing the judicial decision on appeal.
Mr. El Kadi’s arrest sparked a wave of solidarity among his colleagues and human rights activists in Algeria and Europe. A petition launched by RSF to obtain his release has collected more than 10,000 signatures.
In the first instance, Mr. El Kadi, prosecuted for “foreign financing of his company”, had been sentenced on April 2 to five years in prison, including three years in prison. “Relentlessness: the verdict of shame”, responded the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD).
During the appeal trial held on June 4, the public prosecutor requested confirmation of this conviction.
Mr. El Kadi, 63, leader of one of the last private and independent press groups in Algeria – Interface Médias which includes Radio M and the news site Maghreb Emergent – has been imprisoned since 29 December.
“We are amazed at such a decision which is more political than judicial,” reacted to AFP, Me Zoubida Assoul, who is one of the defense lawyers.
“Ihsane El-Kadi was sentenced to the maximum sentence provided for by law. He is not a habitual criminal and should have benefited from mitigating circumstances”, added Ms. Assoul, specifying that the press boss will “certainly” seek cassation.
Mr. El Kadi is accused “of having received sums of money and privileges from persons and organizations in the country and abroad in order to engage in activities likely to undermine the security of the State and its stability”, had indicated the Court of Algiers during the statement of the verdict of first instance.
According to the order for reference, the funds in question amount to “25,000 pounds sterling (about 28,000 euros, editor’s note) that the journalist received, in installments, from his daughter Tin Hinane, established in London and shareholder d’Interface Médias” , said Mr. Assoul, stressing that this money was to be used to settle the group’s debt arrears.
“There is no document in the court file attesting that Ihsane El-Kadi or Interface Media received funds from foreign organizations or from a foreign person,” she added.
The court also ordered the dissolution of his company Interface Médias and the confiscation of all his seized assets as well as fines against him and targeting his companies.
In a resolution adopted on May 11, the European Parliament called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the press boss and called on the Algerian authorities to respect the freedom of the media.
The Algerian Parliament had reacted to this position, qualifying it as “flagrant interference in the affairs of a sovereign country” . He had expressed his “categorical rejection” of the text “full of terrible untruths” voted by MEPs.
During a ceremony organized by the presidency on May 3 on the occasion of International Press Freedom Day, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had discussions with journalists including Khaled Drareni, who was invited to the meeting.
Mr. Drareni explained that he had taken part in the ceremony, as RSF’s representative for North Africa and “to deliver (to President Tebboune) a letter from the organization (RSF) containing a series of demands, in particular, the release of Ihsane El-Kadi and the abandonment of the proceedings against him and against Media Interface”.
Mr. Tebboune then assured media professionals of his desire to open “a new page” with the national press, in particular through the entry into force of new laws.
Algeria is in 136th place out of 180 countries in the world press freedom ranking established by RSF in 2023.
In January, the NGO Amnesty International denounced “the unjustified imprisonment of Mr. El Kadi as a new example of the Algerian authorities’ campaign to silence all dissenting voices through arbitrary detentions and the closure of the media” .
