The Algiers court sentenced Belkacem Djir on Sunday to three years in prison. The journalist was accused of usurpation of office and blackmail, but the details of the case remain unknown, most of the lawyers having refused to discuss his case publicly.
An Algerian journalist, Belkacem Djir, was sentenced Sunday June 28 by a Algiers court to three years in prison in a common law case, according to an association supporting prisoners.
“The verdict fell on the trial of detained journalist Belkacem Djir ?: Conviction to 3 years in prison?”, Said the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD) on its Facebook page.
Mr. Djir was accused of usurpation of function and blackmail. On the other hand, the accusation chamber of the Algiers court had ruled on April 22 dismissal for the accusation of “? Attack on the morale of the army?”.
No information was available on the alleged facts, most of the lawyers having refused to discuss his case publicly, admitting in private that “his file is sensitive.”
“In the wrong place with the wrong person?”
Belkacem Djir, 34, a journalist for the private news TV channel Echourouk News, where he produces and presents political programs, was detained on July 15, 2019.
Before his trial, his lawyer, Me Faiza Guettache, had said that Mr. Djir was “? Victim of the gray areas surrounding the investigative work of journalists?”. She said she was “in the wrong place with the wrong person?” at the time of the facts.
According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF), “the multiplication of the prosecutions against the Algerian journalists is extremely worrying and reports a flagrant degradation of the freedom of the press in Algeria?”.
Several Algerian journalists are currently behind bars, including Khaled Drareni, founder of the online news site Casbah Tribune and correspondent for the French-language TV channel TV5 Monde, and Abdelkrim Zeghileche, director of an internet radio station, Radio-Sarbacane .
Like others, they are being sued for reasons related to “Hirak”, the popular anti-regime protest movement born in February 2019.
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Author: ouest-france.fr – Seneweb.com
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