Prominent Algerian media boss, Ihsane El Kadi, was freed under presidential pardon Friday on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the independence war with France, lawyers said.
El Kadi, 65, who heads Interface Medias which includes the Maghreb Emergent news website and Radio M, was jailed for seven years in June 2023.
The sentence came after he had appealed an initial five-year sentence for “foreign financing of his business”.
His lawyer Noureddine Ahmine posted on Facebook: “What joy! Ihsane El Kadi is free!” alongside a picture of the freed man, who is in his 60s, at home with his family.
Another lawyer, Nabila Smail, posted: “At last Ihsane El Kadi is back home with his loved ones. Freed on November 1. The end of a nightmare.”
Seven years is the maximum penalty under an article in Algeria’s penal code which criminalises anyone who receives “funds, a grant or otherwise… to carry out acts capable of undermining state security”.
His lawyers argued that funds had been sent by his London-based daughter Tin Hinane, a shareholder in his media group, to settle debts.
El Kadi’s arrest sparked a wave of solidarity among his colleagues and rights activists in both Algeria and Europe.
A petition Reporters Without Borders rights group petition attracted more than 10,000 signatures.
Algeria ranks 139th out of 180 countries and territories on RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune signed two decrees pardoning more than 4,000 detainees to mark the anniversary of the 1956-1962 conflict that led to the North African country’s independence.
