Algerian journalist Ihsane El Kadi sentenced to five years
El Kadi must serve three years of his sentence. His media company has been closed and has received a heavy fine.
High-profile Algerian journalist Ihsane El Kadi has been sentenced to three years in prison by the Sidi M’Hamed court in Algiers, which charged him with “foreign financing of his company”, AFP reported.
El Kadi, owner of one of the few independent media groups in the country and critical of the government, was sentenced to five years in prison, including three years in prison, the court ruled on Sunday.
In addition, the court ruled that Interface Media, which operates Maghreb Emergent and El Kadi’s other outlet, Radio M, must be dissolved. The court imposed a number of fines on the company and on El Kadi itself totaling 11.7 million Algerian dinars ($86,200).
The journalist was first arrested on Dec. 24 and has since been detained under a state security law that prohibits receiving funds that threaten state security or “national unity,” the news website he runs, Maghreb Emergent, said at the time.
Interface Media’s headquarters were sealed and documents seized after the journalist’s arrest.
“We will appeal this ruling within the required timeframe,” Abdelghani Badi, one of El Kadi’s lawyers who boycotted the hearing, told AFP.
El Kadi’s defense team had dismissed the foreign financing charge, pointing out that the only foreign transfer to El Kadi’s company came from his daughter who lives in the United Kingdom, who transferred 25,000 British pounds ($31,000) to the company, in which she is an associate.
El Kadi’s arrest has been condemned by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and journalists’ rights groups from Reporters Without Borders to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
A petition calling for his release was signed by thousands.
CPJ Program Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, Sherif Mansour, called El Kadi’s arrest in December an affront to Algeria’s independent media and called on authorities to “stop harassing the press”.
“By arresting journalist Ihsane El Kadi and shutting down Radio M and Maghreb Emergent, Algerian authorities are attacking some of the last independent voices in the country,” Mansour said.