Last update to this alert: 24 March 2024
Algerian cartoonist Ghilas Aïnouche has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In March 2024, the Ruisseau court in Algiers sentenced the cartoonist Ghilas Aïnouche to a further twenty years’ imprisonment for ‘membership of a terrorist group’, in addition to charges of insulting ‘the President of the Republic’ and ‘the symbols of the State’, under Article 87 bis of the Algerian Penal Code, whose repressive mechanism relies primarily on a flexible definition of terrorism that allows for the suppression of any form of challenge to military rule. Ghilas Aïnouche was also fined and issued with a new international arrest warrant.
It should be recalled that the cartoonist was sentenced in absentia to ten years’ imprisonment in November 2022 for his cartoons depicting President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Reporters Without Borders emphasises that “the media landscape in Algeria has never been in such a dire state: independent media are under pressure, journalists are regularly imprisoned or prosecuted, and several websites are blocked”. Algeria, which appears in red on the press freedom map, ranks 145th out of 180 countries. In recent years, the Algerian authorities have introduced repressive reforms to the criminal code, which have been condemned by several human rights organisations.
Cartooning for Peace condemns the judicial harassment to which Ghilas Aïnouche is being subjected, as well as the authorities’ misuse of anti-terrorism laws to stifle freedom of expression and critical voices.
Sources:
30 November 2022
Algerian cartoonist Ghilas Aïnouche, sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia and subject to an international arrest warrant.
On 30 November 2022, the Algerian cartoonist Ghilas Aïnouche, refugee in France since 2020, was sentenced to ten years in prison in absentia by the criminal court of Béjaïa (Algeria) for “attacking the person of the President of the Algerian Republic, attacking the symbols of the State and terrorism”, in accordance with Article 87 Bis of the Algerian criminal code. An international arrest warrant has been issued against him by the Algerian authorities.
On 4 May 2022, the cartoonist was summoned by the Algerian judiciary for his cartoons illustrating President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, published on his social media and in online opposition newspapers, such as the newspaper “L’avant-garde Algérie” or the television channel Canal 22. Already in 2017, according to the press, the cartoonist had also been attacked by Algerian police officers who physically abused him during a forbidden conference. Several months later, he was fired from the online newspaper TSA (Tout sur l’Algérie).
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced the verdict against Ghilas Aïnouche, and the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo supported its former contributor, denouncing the terrorism charge against him. In the 2022 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Algeria is ranked 134th out of 180 countries.
Cartooning for Peace condemns the fact that press cartoons caricaturing a political figure can lead to the conviction of its author and will remain attentive to the evolution of the case.
