French-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui sentenced to 10 years

An Algerian court on Tuesday sentenced French-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui to 10 years in prison, media reported, in a case that sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Bouraoui, who fled to France through Tunisia in February, was sentenced in absentia for an "illegal exit from the territory", one of the defence lawyers told Algerian media.

Journalist Mustapha Bendjama, who was accused of helping her escape, was also sentenced to six months in prison - time he had already served, following his arrest in February.

Bendjama was due to be released on Tuesday after having already served nine months of "arbitrary detention", said Khaled Drareni, the North Africa representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

But Drareni later posted that there was "great uncertainty" surrounding his release.

The prosecution had requested 10 years in prison for Bouraoui and three years for Bendjama.

The court in the northeastern city of Constantine also sentenced Ali Takaida, a border police agent, to three years in prison.

"This project will only benefit a small group and will not benefit the [Kabylie] region in any way."

How Algeria's mining exploits have re-ignited the Hirak revolutionary spirit: https://t.co/gGybf0wJl8

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 4, 2023

Bouraoui's 71-year-old mother, Khadidja - whose passport the activist used to cross the border to Tunisia - was also handed a one-year suspended sentence.

Bouraoui's cousin, Yacine Bentayeb, as well as the taxi driver, Djamel Miassi, who drove her across the border, were sentenced to six months in prison each.

Bouraoui, a gynaecologist by training, was the host of a talk show on Radio M, an Algerian independent radio station whose editor, Ihsane El Kadi, was jailed last December on charges of threatening national security.

El Kadi also heads the news website Maghreb Emergent and is serving a seven-year prison sentence for "foreign financing of his company". His lawyers have described him as "a prisoner of conscience".

Bouraoui came to be renowned as a political activist in the mid-2010s with the Barakat Movement that opposed ex-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's campaign for a fourth consecutive term.

She also took part in the 2019 Hirak mass protests that ousted Bouteflika.

Algiers deemed her flight to France an "illegal exfiltration", sparking a diplomatic dispute with Paris that has since been resolved.