Jailed Algerian journalist Ihsane El-Kadi to remain silent in trial: lawyers

Jailed Algerian journalist Ihsane El-Kadi, accused of illegal fundraising, will remain silent during his trial which is due to start on Sunday, his defence team has said.

El Kadi, director of the Maghreb Emergent news website and Radio M, was remanded in custody on December 29, four days after being detained.

In early January, his lawyer said his detention had been extended on accusations of illegally collecting funds and acts that could "threaten state security".

In a statement released late Thursday, the defence team said El Kadi and his lawyers had decided to use his right to remain silent during the trial.

The decision was taken following what they called "legal violations" by the authorities that had left no room for "conditions and guarantees for a fair trial".

Amnesty International, as well as international media figures including Dmitri Muratov, the Russian journalist who won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, have denounced his arrest and demanded his release.

Amnesty said in January that charges against El-Kadi had been "trumped up state security related offences".

If found guilty, El-Kadi could face between five and seven years in prison in line with an article in Algeria's penal code which criminalises anyone who receives "funds, a grant or otherwise to carry out act capable of undermining state security".

El-Kadi is suspected of "receiving sums of money and privileges from people and organisations inside the country and abroad in exchange for carrying out activities that could harm state security", a court has said.

Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, has launched a petition demanding El-Kadi's release that has so far been signed by more than 10,000 people.

Algeria ranks 134th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2022 World Press Freedom Index