Journalist Meriem Chorfi, Editor-in-chief Mouhoub Rafik, and Mohamed Laamari, the Publisher of Algerian newspaper Sawt Al Akher were placed on Thursday, 2 April under judicial control. The move is the last step before they are dragged into a court, most likely the one in Algiers’ Sidi M’Hamed, which has been use by the Algerian political police to punish anyone who does not toe the line to the regime.
As in all cases of reporters and social media commentators, the three victims of the Algeria justice system are being prosecuted on the basis of the bogus article 79 of the penal code “of attack national unity” and “dissemination of writings that could harm the national interest.”
The arrests confirm the escalation in attacks against journalists perpetrated by the Algerian authorities, as efforts are underway to undermine the anti-regime Hirak movement. Attacks against journalists have escalated of late, despite article 50 of the Algerian Constitution protecting journalists against government abuse.
The three victims of the Algerian political police are being prosecuted for having reported errors and faulty results Covid-19 testing by the state-controlled Pasteur Institute of Algiers. The three journalists have joined a long list of peers who are being punished for their reporting, including Khaled Drareni, Sofiane Merakchi, Said Boudour and Mustapha Bendjama.
In addition to journalists, the political police under the control of the Algerian military command and the
Imane Meddour: arrested and humiliated for her opinion.
intelligence services, have been tracking people who broadcast and publish comments on the Internet that the regime does not like. Just this week, a 30-year-old woman was brutally arrested on 2 April because she published a video on social networks where she criticized the lack of seriousness of the authorities in preventing the spread of Covid-19.
The woman, Imane Meddour, stated that the authorities did nothing to vet the Algerian nationals who were repatriated from Marseilles, apart from simply lodging them in a holiday resort in Oran. The Algerian gendarmerie, the military unit that arrested her, argued in a press release that Meddour was arrested because “she questioned the efforts of the Algerian state in its fight against the coronavirus epidemic.” She is accused of spreading rumors. As a punitive measure, the gendarmerie humiliated Meddour by parading her on Algerian television showing her arms cuffed behind her back. The affair has sparked outrage on social media in Algeria.
