Algiers (AFP)
In jail since March 29, Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni was sentenced on appeal Tuesday to two years in prison, which means he remains in detention, according to one of his lawyers, Mustapha Bouchachi.
"Two years in prison for Drareni. We are going to appeal to the Supreme Court," Me Bouchachi told AFP.
"His continued detention is proof of the regime's confinement in a logic of absurd, unjust and violent repression," responded Christophe Deloire, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for which Khaled Drareni is the correspondent in Algeria. .
The 40-year-old journalist was arrested after covering a student demonstration in Algiers on March 7.
He is also accused of having criticized on Facebook "the corruption and money" of the political system and of having published a statement by a coalition of political parties in favor of a general strike, according to RSF.
"We are scandalized by the blind stubbornness of the Algerian judges who have just sentenced @khaleddrareni to 2 years in prison (on appeal)," said Mr. Deloire in a statement.
Mr. Drareni was sentenced on August 10 to three years' imprisonment for "inciting unarmed assembly" and "undermining national unity".
At the start of the appeal trial a week ago, the prosecutor requested four years in prison against him.
"By dissuading its journalistic coverage, an Algerian justice under orders believes it possible to put the + Hirak + in a pressure cooker and close the lid. It is a vain, explosive strategy, which undermines the legitimacy of those who implement it ", denounced RSF.
Khaled Drareni was on trial together with Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, two figures of the "Hirak", the popular anti-regime uprising.
Under the same charges, MM.
Benlarbi and Hamitouche were sentenced to four months in prison.
Having already purged them, they came out free from the court of Algiers.
© 2020 AFP