Algeria jails journalist for publishing 'sensitive' information

A court in the Algerian city of Constantine sentenced Canadian-Algerian researcher Raouf Farrah and Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama to two years imprisonment on charges of publishing “sensitive state information”, their lawyer said yesterday.

Kouceila Zerguine added that Farrah was also convicted of receiving funds from foreign powers for the purpose of undermining state security.

His 67-year-old father, Sabti Farrah, who was visiting his son from Montreal at the time of his arrest, was found guilty of the same charge and handed a one-year suspended sentence and a fine.

Zerguine said he would appeal the rulings.

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Authorities arrested Bendjama, 32, editor-in-chief of local independent news website Le Provincial, and Farrah, 36, a senior analyst with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) in February.

Bendjama was arrested on suspicion of having helped the French-Algerian political activist Amira Bouraoui flee to France in early 2023.  The Bouraoui case caused a diplomatic dispute with France that was recently resolved. The Algerian journalist denied having links to Bouraoui’s departure.

Bendjama’s phone showed that he had contacts with Farrah, others, and the Global Integrity Index (GII). Bendjama told the judge that he had prepared a report for GII which included 54 social and economic indicators, in exchange for $1,500.

According to several media outlets, the investigators had confused the French term “indicateur”, which means both “indicator” a term used in economics and “informant” a term used by security services to describe people who provide them with information.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the prison sentence against Bendjama and called for his release.

Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), described the charges against Farrah as politically motivated.

“While they are prosecuting him for publishing classified information and receiving funding to commit public order offences, his arrest did not happen in a vacuum, but shortly after Amira Bouraoui fled the country. He and his father got caught up in the reprisals after her escape,” he added.