Prominent Algerian journalist Ihsane El Kadi has been released following a presidential pardon after spending over a year in prison. El Kadi, 65, was imprisoned for accepting foreign funding for his media outlets and allegedly “threatening state security.”
His release comes after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune signed two decrees pardoning more than 4,000 detainees to commemorate the anniversary of Algeria’s struggle for independence from France.
El Kadi’s lawyer, Noureddine Ahmine, celebrated his release on Facebook, posting, “What joy! Ihsane El Kadi is free!” and shared a photo of the journalist with his family. Another lawyer, Nabila Smail, expressed relief, stating, “At last Ihsane El Kadi is back home with his loved ones. Freed on November 1. The end of a nightmare.”
El Kadi, who heads Interface Medias, including the Maghreb Emergent news website and Radio M, was initially sentenced to seven years in prison in June 2023 but had served just over a year of that sentence before his pardon.
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