In Algeria, the defense of journalist Ihsane El-Kadi denounces the conditions of his arrest and his detention. Saturday, January 7, it will be two weeks since the director of the Interface Media agency (Radio M and the Maghreb Émergent site) was arrested in the middle of the night on December 24 at his home.
Thursday, December 29, after five days in police custody, he was formally charged. He is imprisoned in Algiers. He is under investigation for ” illegal collection of money intended to undermine state security. These lawsuits come on top of his recent prison sentence for a press article.
Reporters Without Borders denounces a ” persecution to silence one of the last Algerian media still open to debate and criticism “. Master Zoubida Assoul, member of the collective of lawyers ofIhsane El-Kadipoints out several procedural flaws: You can’t arrest a character like that when there’s no flagrant or felony. Ihsane El-Kadi was kept in custody beyond the period defined by the code of criminal procedure, that is to say 48 hours. As for pre-trial detention, normally it is an exceptional measure. Why do we use pre-trial detention against Ihsane El-Kadi when he can perfectly appear before justice, whenever justice wants it? ? »
” A political reckoning »
” Ihsane El-Kadi has been subjected to judicial and security harassment since all the same more than two yearsinsists Me Zoubida Assoul. For its political positions in relation to the Hirak, to the demand for the release of all prisoners of conscience, as a media, because it is a media that is open to all opinions, from all sides, and that it was the only space where we could afford a contradictory debate. So for us, this prosecution, this arrest, this incarceration, seems to be much more a political settling of scores than a judicial one. »
The other concern of Me Zoubida Assoul is the sealing and closing of the premises of Radio M and Maghreb Émergent, even though these places have not been the scene of flagrant offenses or crimes. A closure that deprives the teams of the two media of resources and premises.
►Also read: Algeria: 2022, a “dark year” for journalism