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Algeria: Former TV Tycoon Anis Rahmani Sentenced on Appeal to 10 Years in Prison

Algerian justice confirmed on appeal on September 25 the ten-year prison sentence of the boss of the Algerian private media group Ennahar, Anis Rahmani. From his real name Mohamed Mokkadem, the pressman was tried for acts of corruption, indicated the official agency APS.

Anis Rahmani was prosecuted in particular for “misuse of the funds of Sarl El-Athir Presse, (within the Ennahar group, editor’s note), violation of exchange regulations, influence peddling to obtain undue advantages, and false declaration”, according to the official APS agency.

Sarl “El-Athir Presse” was also sentenced by the Court of Algiers to a fine of 12 million dinars (approximately 88,000 euros) with payment of compensation of 10 million dinars (more than 73,000 euros) to the benefit of the public treasury.

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In March 2021, Anis Rahmani was sentenced on appeal in another case to three years in prison for having illegally recorded and broadcast in October 2018 a telephone communication he had had with an intelligence service colonel.

During his trial, Anis Rahmani claimed his innocence. He assured that his “moral and legal responsibility (the) had pushed him to defend his journalists by taking certain measures”. Among these provisions, he acknowledged “having recorded the communication with the superior officer and having diffused it during the arrest of the journalist who had written on the subject”.

On October 15, 2020, the CEO of Ennahar was sentenced to six months in prison for defamation in another case that opposed him to the director of the Arabic-speaking publication Echourouk El-Arabi, Yassine Fodil.

Known as a journalist specializing in security issues, he has been the target of other defamation complaints, according to Algerian media.

Launched in 2012, Ennahar TV, a continuous news channel, prides itself on being “the first news channel in Algeria”.

But it has been criticized for being a weapon against opponents of the “system” of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to resign in 2019 under pressure from the army and Hirak,

During the campaign for the presidential election in December 2019, the channel attacked candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who had become president.

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