Three Algerian journalists sentenced to prison

An Algerian court sentenced three Algerian journalists to imprisonment period ranging between two to six months over accusations to defaming the President of the Republic, Abdul Aziz Butaflika, and the army foundation.

The lawyer of the journalists, Khaled Burayou, said that journalist Kamel Omrani from "Le Soire," French language daily, was sentenced to 6 month imprisonment, while the director of the paper Fouad Bu Ghanem was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment over defaming the President of the Republic.

Caricaturist in the French language daily "Liberty" was also sentenced to 6 months imprisonment over a suit by the ministry of defense over publishing caricature drawings criticizing officers in the army.

The three journalists were also fined of 250,000 Algerian dinars ( USD 3025), while "Liberty" paper has to pay a fine of one million Algerian dinars ( USD 12100) and "Le Soire" 10.5 million Algerian Dinars ( USD 127.000), according to the same source.

Burayou described these sentences by the end of the trial session as very hard, noting that the press in Algerian was not challenged with such harshness during the past ten months. He stressed that the defense team for the three journalists will appeal the sentence.