Reporters Without Borders on Thursday condemned Algerian courts after the former editor of the daily Liberté, Farid Alilat was sentenced to one year in prison in his absence for defamation.
Alilat was also fined 100,000 dinars (around 1,100 euros) by the public prosecutor at a court in Sidi-M'hamed, in Algiers. Cartoonist Ali Dilem was fined 50,000 dinars (about 560 euros), while Mustapha Hammush was acquittéd. Liberté was also fined 250,000 dinars (about 2 800 euros). On 10 May the prosecutor had called for 12 months in prison and a fine of 50,000 dinars against all three journalists for a series of cartoons and a column in 2003 considered as "offences against the head of state".
