The trial of Algerian journalist and press tycoon Ihsane El Ghadi is scheduled for March 12 before the correctional chamber at Sidi Mohammed Court (Algiers), according to the journalist’s lawyers, who are in pre-trial detention. At the end of December..
The director of the “Radio M” station and the “Maghreb Emergent” news site will only be tried for “foreign funding of his company,” members of the journalist’s defense team quoted local media as saying.
Many of the charges initially brought against El Ghadi were dropped after a hearing by a trial judge, according to the same sources.
After four days in police custody, Mr. El Ghadi was placed in pre-trial detention on December 29.
A petition organized by “Reporters Without Borders” (RSF) to secure the journalist’s release surpassed 10,000 signatures on Saturday.
In early January, 16 press bosses from different countries joined RSF in calling for the release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov and the lifting of “unacceptable” sanctions targeting his media.
According to human rights organizations, some 300 prisoners of conscience have languished in Algerian prisons for more than three years and with little trial.
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