Algerian journalists and activists demanded the release of the observer of Reporters Without Borders, Khaled Drareni, before his trial at the court of appeal on September 8.
The Algerian government is facing local and international pressure to release the journalist, who was sentenced to three years in prison over his coverage of the Hirak movement’s protests.
The “Khaled Drareni Support Committee” issued a statement announcing that the journalist will go on trial next Tuesday, saying Drareni should instead be released like the rest of the defendants on trial with him in the same case.
Samir Belarbi and Slimane Hamitouche have been convicted by the Court of First Instance on the same false charges of “unlicensed protesting” and “incitement against national unity.”
On Monday, about 200 journalists and leaders of political parties protested in Algiers, calling for the release of Drareni, who was arrested last March, along with Belarbi and Hamitouche.
Drareni, 40, editor of the Casbah Tribune news site and correspondent for French-language channel TV5 Monde, was arrested on charges of "inciting an unarmed gathering" and "endangering national unity" after covering demonstrations by the Hirak.
The Support Committee is led by journalist Ihsane el-Kadi who was also subjected to severe harassment after authorities blocked the two-online media outlets he chairs, Maghreb Emergent and RadioMPost, pending “further legal proceedings” for “defamation and insult” against president Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The committee said the court should acquit Drareni of all charges, as well as the other defendants, stressing that journalism is not a crime, and the three-year prison sentence against Khaled is a very dangerous precedent.
The committee affirmed that it will continue its mobilization to ensure the release of the unjustly accused journalist. It also denounced the former presidential statements in the case, saying they are an interference in the justice system.
It was referring to a televised meeting between the president and four newspapers, during which Tebboune accused the journalist, without naming him, of giving information to the French embassy.
Tebboune indicated that the journalist complained to French officials about his interrogation process.
The committee also condemned the conviction of the director of the censored Internet radio station Radio Sarbacane, Abdelkrim Zeghileche, to two years in prison by the first-instance court in Constantine, calling for his immediate release.
Last Saturday, more than 2,000 people, including 300 journalists, signed a list of demands calling for the release of Drareni.
Amnesty International said in a recent report that the Algerian authorities must immediately end an escalating campaign of media harassment which has "recently seen two prominent journalists handed harsh prison sentences simply for expressing their views or for covering protests."
