Algeriet: Journalist i häkte i södra Algeriet

I över ett årtionde har Rabah Kareche varit korrespondent för tidningen Liberté i Tamanrasset i södra Algeriet. Han har bevakat en lång rad frågor, däribland social rättvisa, korruption och migration. Tuareger i området har protesterat mot marginalisering och Kareche intervjuade den 18 april en tuaregledare i distriktet Tazrouk som kritiserade myndigheternas planer på nya administrativa gränser.
Samma dag greps Kareche och sitter nu i häkte misstänkt för brott som ”spridande av falska nyheter”.

Skriv till
President Abdelmagid Tebboune
Présidence de la république
Place Mohammed Seddik Benyahia,
El Mouradia, Alger
16000 Algeriet
Fax: +213 02169 15 95
E-post: [email protected]

Your Excellency,

I am writing to raise concern about the detention of Algerian journalist Rabah Kareche, a correspondent of the Liberté newspaper in Tamanrasset. The Algerian security forces summoned him on 18 April and questioned him at length about an article that he published on the same day. The article in question covers a protest organized by the Touareg population of Tamanrasset to contest a recent administrative territorial demarcation.

A prosecutor charged Rabah Kareche on 19 April with “spreading fake news or information which threatens security or public order” and “harming the national security or national unity"as well as “creating or supervising an electronic site to publish information likely to cause discrimination and hatred in society”.

I urge you to immediately drop all the baseless charges against Rabah Kareche, and immediately and unconditionally release him from detention as he is detained solely for carrying out his job as a journalist.

Yours sincerely,