journalist Khaled Drareni, who has become the symbol of the fight for press freedom in Algeria, was released on Friday evening February 19 the day after the announcement of a presidential pardon in favor of dozens of prisoners of conscience, a- we learned from his lawyer.
“He is free,” said Abdelaghani Badi, one of the lawyers of the correspondent in Algeria for the TV5 Monde channel and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), specifying that it was a measure of “provisional freedom “. Khaled Drareni was sentenced in September 2020 to two years in prison for “inciting unarmed assembly” and “undermining national unity”.
He covered the Hirak movement
Founder of the electronic site Casbah Tribune, he had covered the popular protest movement Hirak, in particular via his accounts on social networks, before the suspension of the demonstrations because of the Covid-19 pandemic. His conviction sparked outrage in Algeria and abroad. Khaled Drareni is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on February 25 on his cassation appeal.
In addition, the political opponent and businessman Rachid Nekkaz has also regained his freedom, according to the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD), an association supporting prisoners of conscience. Rachid Nekkaz, 47, incarcerated in El Bayadh prison (southwest), began a hunger strike on Friday to protest his prolonged detention, without trial, despite the deterioration of his state of health according to those around him.
Dozens of graces
The opponent has been detained since December 2019, but his trial has still not been scheduled. His requests for provisional release were rejected. He is being prosecuted in particular for “inciting unarmed assemblies” and “publications that could undermine national unity”. Among the detainees released Friday, there is also a Hirak activist, Dalila Touat, known as the spokesperson for the unemployed in Mostaganem (north-west).
She had been imprisoned and on a hunger strike since January 3. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune made a gesture of appeasement on Thursday evening by pardoning dozens of Hirak detainees, before the 2nd anniversary of the popular uprising in Hirak on February 22.
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