Algerian journalist Rabah Kareche has been sentenced to eight months in prison for his reporting on protests, his newspaper Liberte said.
Mr Kareche was handed a one-year-term, with four months suspended. He has already been in prison since his arrest in April and so has four month left to serve.
He was arrested after reporting that a minority group had demonstrated over economic and social marginalisation.
The Journalist was charged with “spreading false information liable to damage public order”.
His arrest and detention triggered protests by journalists that further escalated after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune described him as an “arsonist”.
Amnesty International has described the jailing of the journalist as a blow to press freedom in the country.
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In other news: US sending envoy to urge end to Ethiopia fighting
The United States is sending a special envoy to Ethiopia to urge an end to the fighting in northern Tigray that has escalated to other regions.
President Joe Biden asked special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, to return to Ethiopia at “this critical moment”, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter
.
“Months of war have brought immense suffering and division to a great nation, that won’t be healed through more fighting,” he said.
The special envoy will be travelling to Ethiopia, neighbouring Djibouti and the UAE for 10 days from Sunday and meet with officials to discuss ways to “promote peace” and stability in the region, the US Department of State said in a statement
.
It comes amid the ongoing nine-month war between Tigrayan rebels and the Ethiopian army and its allies, which has recently escalated in the regions of Afar and Amhara.
The conflict has forced over two million people to flee their homes, with hundreds of thousands pushed into famine conditions.
Source: BBC
