2023-05-31 19:00:25
PAmong them are the American thinker Noam Chomsky, the French novelist, Nobel Prize for Literature Annie Ernaux, the Indian novelist and committed author Arundhati Roy, and the English filmmaker Ken Loach, all also known for their political commitment. Here is the full text of the letter:
” Mister President,
More than a country, Algeria is an idea. A stubborn idea of liberation. Sixty years following the independence of Algeria, this idea continues to radiate hope in the hearts of those who still fight once morest oppression. It is proof that victory over injustice is possible even when the face-to-face seems desperate and disproportionately disproportionate.
Today, this great country is closing like a formidable trap on political opponents and citizens who dare to dream of a true rule of law.
Journalist Ihsane El Kadi is in prison because he refuses to submit to pressure from those who govern the country and who would like to make him a counterfeit journalist. Director of the RadioM web radio and the Maghreb Emergent news newspaper, Ihsane El Kadi was arrested in the middle of the night on December 24, 2022 by six military officers. The next day, he was brought by the security services to attend the search and closure of the media he created. His colleagues and friends witnessed, in tears, the spectacle of the handcuffed journalist, led like a criminal to the scene of his crime: an independent radio and news site. At the end of a botched investigation, marred by violations of criminal procedure and the rights of the defense, on April 2, 2023, Ihsane El Kadi was sentenced to five years in prison, three of which are suspended. His appeal trial, which he awaits in El Harrach prison in Algiers, will take place on June 4, 2023.
At 64, Ihsane El Kadi is a veteran of independent journalism in Algeria, just like his father, Bachir El Kadi, was a veteran of his country’s liberation war. Understand that this journalist’s stubbornness for independence in his profession is cemented in the foothills of his freedom education, that of the story of his people’s struggle once morest colonial enslavement.
Ihsane El Kadi is accused of having betrayed his country but, given the distant horizons from which we look and are interested in Algeria, it seems to us that he has, on the contrary, pegged the love of this land to his freelance journalist work.
This is why we allow ourselves to write to you today to ask you to do everything in your power to put an end to the security and judicial relentlessness suffered by Ihsane El Kadi and all prisoners of conscience in Algeria.
Mr. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, whatever the disagreements and antagonisms, Algeria is a larger ideal than the dungeon it is becoming for critical journalists and discordant voices. It is the rediscovered land of the damned of the earth.
It is in your power to release Ihsane El Kadi as well as all imprisoned journalists and all prisoners of conscience. Use this power, out of loyalty to the Algerians’ fight for justice and freedom.
Signatories:
Etienne Balibar, philosopher (France), Joyce Blau, academic, member of FLN support networks during the Algerian War of Independence, Noam Chomsky, linguist (United States of America), Annie Ernaux, novelist, Nobel Prize for Literature (France), Elias Khoury, novelist (Lebanon), Abdelatif Laabi, poet (Morocco), Ken Loach, filmmaker (United Kingdom), Achille Mbembe, historian and political scientist (Cameroon), Arundhati Roy, novelist (India), Youssef Seddik , philosopher (Tunisia).
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