Le Matin director finally freed after two years in prison

Mohamed Benchicou, the director of the Algiers-based daily Le Matin, thanked Reporters Without Borders and all the other organisations that campaigned for his release after he was freed today from El Harrach prison, outside Algiers, on completing a two-year prison sentence for an alleged violation of regulations governing the movement of capital. “We are going to continue fighting for press freedom,” said Benchicou, who was met at the prison gate by his wife and fellow journalists. He had been detained since 14 June 2004. “The long prison sentence Benchicou was made to serve shows how relentless the Algerian authorities have been in hounding this journalist, who is the victim of his government's autocratic tendencies towards the privately-owned news media,” Reporters Without Borders said. “President Bouteflika was cynical enough to issue a pardon last month for journalists serving prison sentences and then leave Benchicou, the only journalists concerned, to complete his sentence,” the press freedom organisation added. The organisation called for the withdrawal of all the lawsuits pending against him and for the return of his passport. It also announced that he was invited to give a news conference at the Reporters Without Borders headquarters in Paris as soon as he was able to travel. “We also hail the courage of his wife, Fatiha, who has waged a tireless struggle for his release for the past two years,” the organisation added. Benchicou was searched at Algiers airport on his return from a trip abroad on 23 August 2003 and found in possession of a certificate of deposit for a large sum of money in dinars. Ten months later, on 14 June 2004, he was found guilty of “violating capital movement laws” and given a two-year sentence. His lawyers insist there was no legal basis for the conviction. They pointed out during the trial that carriage of a certificate of deposit did not entail any movement of capital, since no foreign currency or cash was involved, just a document without fiduciary value that could only be cashed in dinars at his own bank. Four months before his trial, Benchicou had published a scathing booklet about the president entitled “Bouteflika, an Algerian imposter.” The premises of Le Matin were sold by auction on 26 June 2004 to pay off overdue taxes and the newspaper had to stop publishing on 24 July 2004 when a state-owned printing press demanded settlement of what it was owed. Benchicou and around 20 other journalists working for privately-owned news media continue to be hounded by the Algerian courts, receiving summons after summons in connection with lawsuits brought by government officials.