Ten intellectuals call for release of Algerian journalist Ihsane El-Kadi

A group of intellectuals, including American linguist Noam Chomsky and literature Noble Prize winner Annie Ernaux, are calling on Algerian authorities to release renowned Algerian journalist Ihsan El-Kadi.

"Ihsane El-Kadi is accused of having betrayed his country, but, seen from the distant horizons from which we look, it seems to us that he has, on the contrary, pegged the love of this land to his work as a journalist," reads the petition published Tuesday in the French daily Le Monde.

Ten intellectuals signed the petition, including Indian author Suzanna Arundhati Roy and British film director Ken Loach and Joyce Blau, a member of the support networks for the National Liberation Front (FLN) during the Algerian War of Independence.

As director of the Radio M web radio and the Maghreb Emergent news newspaper, the 64-year-old veteran journalist was arrested in the middle of the night on 24 December 2022, by six military officers.

The next day, he was taken by the security services to witness the search and closure of the media he fought for its independence. His colleagues and friends witnessed, in tears, the spectacle of the handcuffed journalist being led to the scene of his "crime".

On 2 April, El-Kadi was sentenced to five years in prison. He is currently held at El-Harrach prison in Algiers, awaiting his appeal trial set for 4 June.

El-Kadi is being prosecuted under Article 95 of the Penal Code. 

According to the article, "anyone who receives funds, a gift or a benefit ... to perform or incite to perform acts likely to undermine the security of the State, the stability and the normal functioning of its institutions, to national unity, to territorial integrity, to the interests of Algeria," will be punished by five to seven years in prison.

This is not the first time El-Kadi faces the Algerian justice. For the past three years, the journalist underwent relentless judicial harassment over his writings.

Named "the last Samurai of journalism" in the country, Ihsane El-Kadi refused to bow to the state's censorship while much of the rest of the country's media has been reined in. 

Four years after the pro-reform Hirak protests, Algeria remains a dangerous place to be a journalist. Algeria is ranked 134th out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2022 World Press Freedom Index. 

Algerian authorities are holding at least 280 activists and dozens of journalists in detention, mostly under the charge of defamation of politicians or due to posts on social networks.

After toppling the two-decade-long regime of Bouteflika in 2019, Algerians' path to democracy was soon sabotaged by President Tebboune's fledgling regime.

"More than a country, Algeria is an idea. A stubborn idea of liberation. Sixty years after the country's independence, this idea continues to radiate hope in the hearts of those who are still fighting against oppression," concludes the petition calling for the liberation of all prisoners of conscience in Algeria.