Seven years in prison, two of which are suspended: this is the sentence pronounced on appeal this Sunday against the journalist and press boss Ihsane El Kadi. A heavier sentence than the five years that emerged from the judgment at first instance, namely five years. In prison since last December, the founder of the private media Maghreb Emerging and Radio M was sentenced because considered under article 95 bis of the Penal Code. Introduced in April 2020, this article provides penalties ranging from five to seven years for “anyone who receives funds, a gift or an advantage, by any means, from a State, an institution or any other public or private body or of any legal or natural person, inside or outside the country, to carry out or incite to carry out acts likely to undermine the security of the State, the stability and the normal functioning of its institutions , national unity, territorial integrity, the fundamental interests of Algeria or public security and order”. Justice also pronounced the dissolution of its company Interface Media, which oversees the two media. It also confiscated all the property seized from the journalist and imposed fines on him and his companies.
“I’m in shock, it’s a disaster!” “Reacted one of the people present at the scene of the judgment this Sunday. “A shocking and incomprehensible verdict,” the representative of the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Khaled Drareni, posted on Twitter. “The sentencing of Algerian journalist Ihsane El Kadi to seven years in prison [including five years in prison] is truly surreal. The penalty is unfounded and its quantum is meaningless. The drift in Algeria goes beyond all bounds,” also tweeted Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF. The NGO estimated, in a press release, that “this sentence, unjust and shocking, which is one of the heaviest ever pronounced against an Algerian journalist, crowns a Kafkaesque police and judicial procedure and a relentlessness against Ihsane El Kadi”. RSF recalls the words of lawyer Zoubida Assoul who assured that there was “no proof of receipt of funds from a foreign organization or state”. According to the lawyer, this is money paid by her daughter, Tin Hinane, to the company in which she is a shareholder.
According to the order for reference, the funds in question amount to “25,000 pounds sterling [approximately 28,000 euros] which the journalist received, in installments, from his daughter Tin Hinane, established in London and shareholder of Media Interface,” said Me Assoul, stressing that this money was to be used to settle the group’s debt arrears. “There is no document in the court file showing that Ihsane El Kadi or Interface Media received funds from foreign organizations or from a foreign person,” she added. In addition, RSF specifies that “his arrest [in December] came a few days after writing about Algerian politics – in particular an article on the next presidential election as well as a tweet contesting figures put forward by the authorities. This was followed by the constitution, a posteriori, of a semblance of an indictment file”.
For its part, Amnesty International considers that “Ihsane was convicted on baseless charges” and demands his release.
On social networks, it is the shock. Journalist Hassan Ouali tweets: “The verdict of history will be cruel and without appeal or mitigating circumstance. The day he is returned – not long after – Ihsane El Kadi will be on the glorious side of history. A sad day for freedom, we who thought we were born and lived free. Free Ihsan. »