Algeria pardoned a journalist, a key voice during the country’s pro-democracy protests in 2019 who was jailed for receiving foreign funding for his media and threatening state security, according to AP News.
Ihsane El Kadi was released on Thursday along with eight other people jailed after criticising the state. Their release coincided with the 70th anniversary of the start of the Algerian revolution, which authorities have been using as an occasion for pardons.
Fetta Saddat, one of El Kadi’s lawyers, said he was released from El Harrah prison after receiving a presidential pardon. He was serving a sentence for receiving foreign funding for Radio M and Maghreb Emergent, two media projects that were pivotal during the Hirak protests in 2019.
He was among 4,000 people released on Thursday under pardon decrees signed by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
