Algerian authorities have arrested a journalist from a local French-language newspaper and searched his house, a rights group and one of his colleagues said Monday.
“Mohamed Mouloudj, journalist at the Liberte daily, was arrested on Sunday and his house searched,” the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) said on Facebook.
“He is still in custody in Algiers.”
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Mouloudj’s newspaper, where he has worked for a decade, did not immediately comment, but one of his colleagues confirmed the arrest.
“He had already had run-ins with the security services, who took away his passport for months,” Ali Boukhlef said.
“He had also been taken in for questioning several times.”
Another Algerian journalist, Hassan Bouras, was arrested a week ago and formally placed in preventive detention on Sunday, accused of “glorifying terrorism” among other crimes, his lawyers said.
Algeria is ranked 146th out of 180 countries and territories on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index.
According to prisoners’ rights group CNLD, around 200 people are in jail in connection with the Hirak pro-democracy protest movement that has shaken the North African country sporadically since 2019, or over individual freedoms.
Read more:
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Thousands protest in Algeria, hoping to rekindle 2019 Hirak movement
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