Great concern over health of editor Mohamed Benchicou

Reporters Without Borders called today on international organisations to urgently send a doctor to check the worsening health of Algerian newspaper editor Mohamed Benchicou, who has been in prison since June last year serving a two-year sentence for libel. “We are very worried,” it said. “His condition is worsening daily and he risks serious paralysis if he does not get immediate and proper treatment. We have alerted the International Red Cross and Médecins du Monde and we now appeal to NGOs to send a doctor to visit him. We warn the prison authorities that they will be responsible for any irreversible medical problems that arise.” Benchicou, editor of the daily paper Le Matin, has cervical arthritis and the right side of his body is almost entirely paralysed and he can only use his left hand. His wife and his lawyers have several times asked officials at the El-Harrach prison, where he is being held, to allow him to be treated for it but have had no reply. A former inmate said the journalist spends much of the time lying down, and has great difficulty moving around and doing simple things like opening a bottle of water or writing. Benchicou, whose paper campaigned against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the run-up to the April 2004 election, has been hounded for several years with lawsuits for libel. He has been in jail since 14 June 2004. The paper was shut down a month later, on 23 July. Benchicou also published a book in February 2004 that called the president an “imposter.”