Algeria’s Constantine Court of Appeal on Thursday reduced the prison sentences imposed on Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjema and Algerian-Canadian researcher Raouf Farrah from two years to 20 months, including 8 months as a fixed sentence, his lawyer said.
“Raouf will be released immediately,” Me Kouceila Zerguine told AFP, indicating that Mr. Bendjema, against whom “another case is ongoing,” will learn his fate “on October 31.”
The lawyer emphasized that for the two co-defendants, who were sentenced to eight months in prison, there was “a change in the sentences imposed to eight months in prison and twelve months probation” during the appeal process.
Mr. Farrah’s defense attorney nevertheless announced the filing of a “cassation appeal” with the aim of “proving the innocence” of his client. According to him, the researcher can “leave Algeria on Thursday as normally as possible” and return to Tunisia, where he has “lived for four years” with his Canadian wife and their four-year-old daughter.
A researcher with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), Mr Farrah, 36, and his friend, journalist Bendjema, 32, were sentenced to two years in prison in the first instance in August.
They had appealed, hoping for an acquittal, but last week prosecutors asked for an increase in sentences on appeal.
They were found guilty of “publishing information and documents, some or all of which are classified, on an electronic network or other technical media.”
Mr. Farrah was also convicted of “receiving funds from foreign or domestic institutions with the intent to commit acts that could undermine public order.” For this reason, his father Sebti, 67, was given a one-year suspended prison sentence.
Raouf Farrah was arrested on February 14 at his parents’ home in Annaba (East).
“indicator”, “indicative”
According to several lawyers and media outlets, the affair began when the security services had access to Mustapha Bendjema’s phone following his arrest on February 8 at the premises of the Annaba-based newspaper Le Provincial, of which he is editor-in-chief.
He was suspected of helping French-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui leave Algeria via Tunisia two days earlier after she was banned from leaving the country.
The “Bouraoui affair,” described by Algiers as “illegal exfiltration,” had led to a diplomatic dispute with France.
Mustapha Bendjama was a key player in the pro-democracy protest movement in Annaba in 2019.
Analysis of the journalist’s phone revealed contacts between MM. Bendjema and Farrah, as well as the anti-corruption NGO Global Integrity Index (GII).
Before the judge, the journalist explained that on behalf of GII and at the request of his researcher friend, he prepared “a report detailing 54 socio-economic indicators for $1,500.”
According to media reports, investigators confused the term “economic indicator” with the term (“indicator”) that the police use for information providers.
Since Mr. Bendjema did not have a foreign currency account, the money was deposited into the account of Mr. Farrah, who had the amount he had given to Mr. Bendjema converted into dinars, which constituted a breach of foreign exchange regulations acknowledged by Mr. Bendjema.