(CALP/IFEX) – CALP has expressed concern that Bachir Larabi, El Bayadh correspondent for the Algiers-based Arabic-language daily “El Khabar”, has been imprisoned in the town of Aïn Sefra since 21 January 2006. The journalist has started a hunger strike to protest his incarceration. On 29 September 2005, Larabi was sentenced in absentia to one month […]
(CALP/IFEX) – CALP has expressed concern that Bachir Larabi, El Bayadh correspondent for the Algiers-based Arabic-language daily “El Khabar”, has been imprisoned in the town of Aïn Sefra since 21 January 2006. The journalist has started a hunger strike to protest his incarceration. On 29 September 2005, Larabi was sentenced in absentia to one month in prison with no parole.
Larabi was charged with libel resulting from a 9 December 2003 article published in “El Khabar” wherein the regional authorities and a local association, El Farah, who were responsible for the construction of a senior citizens’ hospice, were incriminated for not completing the project on the lot they had been granted to build upon.
The official who provided the journalist with documents that contributed to the article’s publication was also sentenced to one month in prison.
In a separate development, the director of the regional twice monthly publication “El Waha”, Mr. Nedjar, was sentenced to three months in prison with no parole by the court of Ghardaïa (600 km south of Algiers). The sentence resulted from a libel case against Colonal Lahdiri, the director general of Algeria’s civil protection agency. Nedjar’s paper reported on influence peddling involving Lahdiri’s son in the Ghardaïa region on three occasions (January and March 2004 and June 2005). Nedjar, who has not yet been incarcerated, says he will appeal the sentence.
