Two courts in the Algerian capital ordered to imprison three journalists on remand, last Thursday evening, two for libel and the third for harming the state institutions and peoples’ private lives, according to lawyers.
The three defendants are the editor-in-chief of the “Algérie Part” website “,” Abdul Rahman Samar “and the journalist (in the same website), “Marwan Boudheyab”, as well as the journalist and the owner of the "Dzair Press", “Adlan Mallah”.
“Mallah” has been under investigation since Monday evening. The judge has ordered the extension of his detention until the completion of the investigation of the charges against him, namely, "harming the state institutions, taking photographs and videos without permit," as well as, "violating the sanctity of peoples’ private lives " according to his lawyer “Abdul Ghani Badi”. The law in Algeria stipulates five years of imprisonment as a punishment for these charges.
These complaints were lodged by Al-Nahar Group Director,” Anis Rahmani”, in addition to the governor of Algiers, “Abdelkader Zoukh” and the general manager of Condor Group, one of the largest electronic companies, “Abdel Rahman Ben Hammadi”.
On the other hand, the National Gendarmerie, which conducted the investigations, issued a statement declaring that it "dealt with seven cases related to the criminal use of the social media sites and the internet." The statement added that the defendants were organized into four groups distributed as follows: "Information gathering and installation, pressure execution, mediation, bargaining and fundraising"
The Gendarmerie did not mention the names or jobs of the accused, pointing out that their victims "were subjected to bargaining and extortion under the threat of defamation and violation of the personal freedoms, through the social media sites."
For his part, the lawyer “Amin Sidhom” said that "Abdul Rahman Samar” and “Marwan Boudheyab”, who were in custody since Tuesday evening after being summoned to the investigation, and then presented on Thursday to the court of “Bir Murad Rays” and then they stood before the judge who ordered for their provisional detention before their trial on 8 November.".
According to the lawyer, “Samar” and “Boudheyab” are being tried on charges of libel, slander and the harming of peoples’ private lives after a complaint by lodged by the director of Al-Nahar channel.
“Sidhom” clarifies: "We do not know exactly the article that the court considered as a libel and slander, since we have not yet obtained a copy of the file".
#journalists #Algeria #gendarmerie #judiciary
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