Sentencing of journalist El-Kadi Ihsane: strong US reaction

The US Embassy posted a tweet on its official account that shook the walls of the El-Mouradia presidential palace and the headquarters of the Algerian Ministry of National Defence. 

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right recognised by the UN. The Biden Administration has made and will continue to make clear that freedom of the press and freedom of expression are American priorities around the world, including in Algeria". This message could not be clearer, calling to order, in a very dry manner, a liberticidal power whose prisons are filled with at least 500 prisoners of conscience.

On Sunday morning, 2 April, the court in Sidi M'hamed (Algiers) delivered its verdict in the trial of journalist El-Kadi Ihsane, director and founder of the websites Radio M and Maghreb Émergent. He was finally convicted. He was sentenced to five years in prison, three of which are final. The company that publishes the two sites, Interface Médias, was fined 10 million dinars, dissolved and its material confiscated.

And that is not the end of the story. El-Kadi Ihsane and Interface Médias must also jointly pay 1 million dinars in damages to the Audiovisual Regulation Authority (ARAV), which is a civil party.

While the Algerian press remains unmoved by this outrageous verdict, the US Embassy in Algiers cannot remain unmoved by such abuse and repression by the Algerian authorities. "The Biden Administration has made and will continue to make clear that press freedom and freedom of expression are American priorities around the world, including in Algeria" will ring loudly in the ears of the Tebboune-Chengriha duo. They are reminded that the US cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening in a country transformed into a huge prison, with untold numbers of thousands of citizens banned from leaving the national territory for no reason, and the daily imprisonment of citizens of all ages and social categories throughout the country. Not to mention the excessive number of journalists and political and human rights activists forced into exile.

By imposing silence on the national media about its repressive excesses, brandishing the stick and the carrot, and taking advantage of the passivity of foreign public opinion, the Algiers government thought it was free to suffocate an entire country whose population has only one concern left: coping with the endless shortage of basic foodstuffs.

Journalist El-Kadi Ihsane was arrested on the night of 24 December after posting a tweet the previous day questioning Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's claim that the Algerian treasury had recovered an astronomical USD 20 billion by seizing the assets of imprisoned oligarchs. El-Kadi Ihsane had replied in a Tweet: "The treasury has recovered 20 billion dollars from the Issaba oligarchs," President Tebboune said without batting an eyelid!!!!. How can anyone dare say something so mathematically crude to citizens who are reputed to be the best educated in Africa?". Faced with what the Algiers regime wanted to present as one of its most important achievements, the journalist scoffed at the sight of the lie melting like snow in the sun.

It was too much for a power that rejects all debate and contradiction. In the pillory for several months, harassed from all sides, this journalist whose sense of proportion is appreciated by all his colleagues finally fell. He is accused of having benefited from foreign funding. This is completely false, since the sum of £25,000 that reached his company's accounts came from his daughter, who lives in Great Britain, to enable him to pay the journalists of Radio M and the Maghreb Emergent website. The evidence was provided by his lawyers during the trial and during the investigation.

However, the Algerian regime is not in a position to speak of Algerian financing. Indeed, it is the regime that finances the Grand Mosque of Paris, a French institution, to the tune of 2 million euros a year. But as all pretexts are good for silencing dissenting voices, Algeria's leaders will stop at nothing to maintain a power acquired through repression.

The American reaction to the scandalous conviction of journalist El-Kadi Ihsane, considered the last straw, will undoubtedly lead the European Union and many international human rights organisations to cry out to the Algerian regime: "Stop the repression".