Reporters
Without Borders welcomed the release of
Ahmed Benaoum, editor of the press group
Er-rai El Aam, who was acquitted by a court
in Oran on 19 June 2005. However the worldwide
press freedom organisation said it regretted
that he had waited 11 months and pointed
out that Mohamed Benchicou had been in prison
for one year and "that other journalists
face imprisonment at any time for upsetting
the government."
Benaoum
had been sentenced to two years in prison
based on a complaint from the tax authorities.
Scores of other complaints had also been
lodged against him in defamation and common-law
cases. On 28 June 2004, Benaoum was waiting
to appear before a court in Oran in a defamation
case when he served with a warrant that
took him from the court house straight to
prison. The warrant issued by the Oran court
of criminal appeal was based on a complaint
from the Office for estate agency promotion
and management.
The press group headed
by Benaoum published the dailies Er-rai
and Le Journal de l'Ouest, along with the
weekly Détective, until August
2003, when the state-run printers demanded
the newspapers pay their debts. Since they
were unable to pay the newspapers were closed.
Elsewhere, Mohamed Benchicou, editor of
the banned daily Le Matin, has been held
in al-Harrash prison in Algiers for one
year. His request for release on health
grounds was refused on 20 April this year.
Maghreb
& Middle-East Desk
Reporters
Without Borders
5 rue Geoffroy-Marie
F - 75009 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 84
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
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