Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni jailed for two years

Story By: africanews.com

Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni received a two-year prison sentence at his appeal hearing on Tuesday for his coverage of the anti-government protests.

Rights groups have condemned the verdict as an attack on press freedom as the country has been rocked by demonstrations for the last year.

The 40-year-old journalist was arrested on March 29 on charges such as “endangering national unity” after covering demonstrations by the so-called “Hirak” protest movement.

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In August he was handed a three-year jail term.

Drareni is a correspondent for French-language channel TV5 Monde and an editor at the Casbah Tribune news site.

Algeria’s judiciary has stepped up prosecutions journalists and activists in recent months.

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“We are outraged by the blind stubbornness of the Algerian judges who have just condemned (Drareni) to 2 years in prison,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire tweeted after the verdict was announced.

“Khaled’s detention proves the regime locks itself into a logic of absurd, unfair and violent repression.”

 

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