Even if their defenders had few illusions before the judgment, the verdict is heavy. The court of Constantine (Algeria) sentenced, on Tuesday August 29, to two years in prison the Algerian-Canadian researcher Raouf Farrah, 36 years old, and the Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama, 32 years old, in detention for more than six months. They were found guilty of “publishing information and documents, the contents of which are classified partly or wholly secret, on an electronic network or other technological means of media”.
On August 22, the prosecution had requested three years in prison against the two men. Their lawyers had asked for release, denouncing irregularities in the procedures and violations of the rights of the accused while in police custody, including violence committed against Mustapha Bendjama. Mr. Farrah was also convicted of “receiving funds from foreign or domestic institutions with the intent to commit acts that could undermine public order”. For the same reason, his father Sebti, 67, received a one-year suspended sentence.
The case started on February 8 with the arrest of Mustapha Bendjama, editor of the daily Le Provincial, based in Annaba (northeast). He is then suspected of having facilitated the flight to Tunisia of the activist Amira Bouraoui two days earlier when she felt threatened. Franco-Algerian, Ms. Bouraoui, who has always denied having benefited from his help, was able to reach France after an intervention by the French consular services in Tunisia. The Bouraoui affair, described as “illegal exfiltration” by the Algerian government, had caused a diplomatic crisis with France, which Algiers had accused of having organized the activist’s escape.
Mr. Bendjama has been in the sights of the authorities for years. Since the Hirak – the protest movement that shook Algeria from February 16, 2019 until 2021, ending the reign of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, he has chained judicial controls and indictments for having revealed several cases which have notably disturbed the local authorities.
“No basis to support the charges”
It is by “exploiting” the journalist’s telephone that the Annaba gendarmes, failing to establish a link between him and the mare of Amira Bouraoui, will embark on a hunt for the sources of Mr. Bendjama. “They were six. They put me on my knees and they used a screwdriver to scratch my fingers in order to use my fingerprint to unlock my smartphone. The next day they came back and asked me for the password. The interrogations lasted until 4 a.m.,” he testified at his trial on August 23.
In the list of his contacts: the researcher Raouf Farrah, thanks to whom the journalist came into contact with the anti-corruption NGO Global Integrity Index (GII), and who commissioned him to write a report compiling fifty-four socio-economic indicators based on open and academic sources for a fee of 1,500 US dollars (approximately 1,380 euros). In their wake, the investigators will translate the term “indicators” into Arabic as “informants”… As for Raouf Farrah, he will be accused, among other things, of writing “reports” for foreigners. In fact, analyzes published by the Swiss NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).
Graduated in Canada and living in Tunisia since 2020, Raouf Farrah is particularly interested in human trafficking, issues related to organized crime and the Libyan and Malian conflicts. He had also coordinated, at the beginning of 2023, a collective essay on the hirak: Algeria: the future at stake, an essay on the prospects of a country in suspense (Koukou editions). Among the contributors, the journalist Mustapha Bendjama.
“It’s a shock. We do not accept this verdict. In view of the elements that have been presented by the courts, we believe that there is no basis to support the charges brought against Raouf, Sebti and the other co-defendants, “said Le Monde Mark Micallef, director of the GI-TOC Observatory for North Africa.
“An essential contributor to our research”
“We are a civil society organization. Everything we do, from how we are organized to our members, our funding, our publications is completely transparent,” adds Miccalef. “Raouf is a key contributor to our research on North Africa and the Sahel. All of his work has been published for the benefit of all. And I would like to emphasize that States are the primary beneficiaries of our work and our recommendations. »
In a statement, the NGO called on Algeria to “recognize Raouf Farrah’s valuable contributions to research and defend his right to a fair and transparent judicial process in the context of an expedited appeal”.
Mustapha Bendjama joins the cohort of journalists convicted in Algeria. On June 18, the Algiers Court of Appeal increased the conviction of press boss Ihsane El Kadi, founder of Radio M. et Maghreb Emergent, to seven years in prison, including five years, for “foreign financing”.
For Eric Goldstein, Middle East and North Africa deputy director of the NGO Human Rights Watch, “the sentencing of researcher Raouf Farrah and journalist Mustapha Bendjama to two years in prison is political. It once again attests to the all-out repression of the authorities, under false pretexts and via the instrumentalization of justice”.
