Reporters Without Borders condemns suspended jail sentence on cartoonist Ali Dilem

Reporters Without Borders has spoken out against a four-month suspended jail sentence on cartoonist Ali Dilem of the daily Liberté. The sentence was handed down by an Algiers court on 23 December. "Yet again we condemn the Algerian authorities' latest abusive use of Article 144A of the criminal code, which on the excuse of dealing with defamation, is aimed at gagging the independent press, which is seen as too irreverent," said Robert Ménard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders."The government is thus trying to blunt the pen of one of the Algerian press's most biting cartoonists," he added. Dilem was sentenced for defamation under Article 144A of the amended code to a four-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 100,000 dinars (about 1,200 euros), in a case that pitted him against the national defence ministry. Abrous Outoudert and Hacène Ouandjeli, respectively former publisher and former managing editor were both also sentenced in the same case to a fine of 50,000 dinars (about 600 euros).The offending cartoon, dated 3 April 2002, was based on a dramatic incident the previous evening when 21 soldiers were caught in a bogus road block set up by two terrorists.It was captioned, "The criminal code protects the generals but not the soldiers."The defence ministry decided the cartoon was defamatory Dilem's lawyer Maitre Bourayou considered the verdict particularly harsh. "They don't just want to sentence him but this form of expression," he told the daily Le Matin. Article 144A of the criminal code sets out prison terms from two to 12 months in prison and fines ranging from 50,000 to 250,00 dinars (about 600 to 3,000 euros) for anything referring to the president of the Republic in insulting or defamatory terms. The same penalties are applied to the same offences when committed against "parliament or one of its two chambers or the National People's Army (ANP)"