(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, RSF protested the Algiers Appeals Court prosecutor’s seeking of a one-year prison-sentence against the editor of the private daily newspaper “El Watan”, Omar Belhouchet, for “attacking official bodies”. RSF notes that in a document dated 18 January 2000, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, RSF protested the Algiers Appeals Court prosecutor’s seeking of a one-year prison-sentence against the editor of the private daily newspaper “El Watan”, Omar Belhouchet, for “attacking official bodies”. RSF notes that in a document dated 18 January 2000, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression Abid Hussain asked “all governments to ensure that those committing press offences no longer risk prison unless they involve offences such as racist comments or incitement to violence. Imprisonment as a sentence for the peaceful expression of an opinion constitutes a serious human rights violation.” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard noted, “It is clear that this case has been unearthed in the context of the recent campaign against journalists.”
According to information obtained by RSF, on 18 February 2002, the Algiers Appeals Court prosecutor demanded a one-year prison sentence with no parole against Belhouchet, editor of the private daily newspaper “El Watan”. He is charged with “attacking official bodies”. The prosecutor’s recommended sentence is to be deliberated on until 4 March. Belhouchet was sentenced in the First Instance Court on 5 November 1997. He was charged by the public prosecutor for opinions he expressed in September 1995 on the French TF1 and Canal Plus television channels. Questioned about the assassination of Algerian journalists, the “El Watan” editor did not exclude the involvement of the “power elite.” When he was questioned on 18 February, Belhouchet stated that his views were “not aimed at any official body or state institution,” though he did not exclude the “political and financial mafia’s involvement in certain assassinations of journalists.” According to RSF, 57 journalists and about 40 other media workers were assassinated in Algeria between 1993 and 1996. Responsibility for most of these assassinations was claimed by various armed Islamic groups. However, RSF believes that the circumstances surrounding some of these assassinations remain unclear and raise many questions.
On 28 January, “El Watan” journalist Salima Tlemçani was brought in for questioning by the Algiers Criminal Investigation Department because of an 11 December 2001 article in which she commented on nominations to the Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS). Other journalists from private daily newspapers and caricaturists have also been called in for questioning by the Criminal Investigation Department in the Algerian capital over the last few weeks following defamation accusations by the Ministry of Defence (see IFEX alerts of 31 and 30 January 2002).
