(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged the Algerian justice system to put an end to its harassment of “Le Matin” editor Mohammed Benchicou, who is already serving a two-year sentence and could now be convicted in two or possibly three separate libel cases on 7 December 2004. “With close to 50 cases [pending], with one trial […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged the Algerian justice system to put an end to its harassment of “Le Matin” editor Mohammed Benchicou, who is already serving a two-year sentence and could now be convicted in two or possibly three separate libel cases on 7 December 2004.
“With close to 50 cases [pending], with one trial after another, one lawsuit after another, hearings adjourned by judges and incomprehensible legal manoeuvres, Benchicou’s legal ordeal is on a par with the absurdities and nightmarish procedures of the bureaucratic and partisan judicial system described in Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’,” RSF said.
“The authorities have already obtained the closure of ‘Le Matin’ and the imprisonment of its editor. The time has come [for them] to consider showing moderation and clemency,” the organisation added.
In one of the pending cases, Benchicou is being prosecuted for “offending the head of state”, namely President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in an article entitled, “Time for an Anti-Bouteflika Front”, which appeared in the 31 December 2003 edition of “Le Matin”. Article 141 of the Criminal Code provides for up to a year in prison for such a crime. The prosecutor is seeking a six-month sentence. Benchicou’s lawyers pleaded in his defence in a 30 November 2004 hearing.
In another case, Benchicou is accused of “insulting the president of the republic” in connection with another article he wrote. And in a third case, a court in Sidi Mohammed is due to issue a verdict in a case brought against Benchicou and one of his journalists, Abla Chérif, over an article entitled, “How I was Tortured”, about alleged atrocities by gendarmes in Tkout (90 km south of Batna, in the Aurès) in May.
The newspaper “Le Soir d’Algérie” reported that several of the victims travelled from Tkout to Algiers in order to testify at the 24 November trial, confirming Chérif’s account of their mistreatment and torture.
On 14 June, Benchicou began serving a two-year prison sentence for “violation of currency exchange laws”, on the grounds that cash vouchers were found in his luggage at Algiers airport in August 2003. His sentence was confirmed in August 2004.
“Le Matin” opposed President Bouteflika during his April re-election campaign. Previously, in February, Benchicou published a scathing leaflet about the president entitled, “Bouteflika, an Algerian Imposter”.
