Journalist gets two-year prison sentence

Reporters Without Borders today called for the immediate release of Algerian journalist Hassan Bourras, recently jailed for two years for libel after reporting on corruption by local officials in the western part of the country. "This sentence, along with a ban on working as a journalist for five years, sets Algeria back many years and once again shows the power of vested interests in their efforts to stop exposure of their illegal activities," said the press freedom organisation's secretary-general Robert Ménard. "Bouras is the victims of these big shots who think they are untouchable because they are far from the capital." "We are also appalled that news of this sentence did not appear on the front page of any national paper despite being the most serious media prosecution since the time when journalists were being kidnapped," he said. "This is the severest punishment of a journalist since President Abdelaziz Bouteflika came to power in 1999." Bourras, correspondent in the western town of El Bayadh for several dailies, including the Oran regional paper El Djazaïri and the national El Youm, was sentenced by a court in El Bayadh on 6 November. He was jailed first in El Bayadh and then transferred on 17 November to the prison in Saida. He has been on hunger-strike for the past few days. He was convicted after a complaint by the local prosecutor about two articles in El Djazaïri. One said the prosecutor's wife had forged a document to obtain a job and the other reported illegal property dealings by prominent local people. He has proof of his accusations as well as witnesses. Bourras is also the correspondent in El Bayadh of the Algerian Human Rights League, which has formed a team of 10 lawyers to represent him at his appeal hearing, whose date has not yet been fixed. He was given a six-month suspended jail sentence in January this year after the provincial branch of the National Organisation of Mujahideens accused him of libelling the son of the organisation's secretary. He was also physically attacked a few days after being sentenced.