Algeria pardons, releases journalist Ihsane El Kadi

Activists demonstrate outside the Algerian embassy in France to demand the release of Algerian journalist Ihsane al-Kaadi in Paris, France on March 30, 2023. file | Photo Credit: AP

Algeria has pardoned a journalist who emerged as a leading voice during the country’s 2019 pro-democracy protests and was later jailed on charges of taking foreign funding for his media outlet and endangering state security. Was put in.

Ihsane Al Kadi was released from jail on Thursday (November 1, 2024) evening along with eight other people who were jailed after criticizing the state. His release coincided with the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Algerian revolution, a date that authorities have used in the past as an opportunity to grant pardons.

Fetta Saddat, one of El Kadi’s lawyers, told The Associated Press that he was released from El Harrah prison after receiving a presidential pardon. He was serving a sentence for receiving foreign financing for Radio M and Maghreb Emergent, two media projects that were major outlets during the Hirak protests that led to the resignation of octogenarian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019.

He was one of 4,000 people released on Thursday (November 1, 2024) based on an amnesty order signed by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, according to a statement from his office.

“Those released include those imprisoned for low-level crimes and for ‘undermining public order,'” Algerian authorities have used this charge to target dissidents in the past.