By AFP More by this AuthorAlgiers,Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni received a three-year prison term Monday, a lawyer said, in a trial rights groups have called a test of press freedom in a country recently rocked by anti-government protests. We are surprised," lawyer and president of the Algerian League for Human Rights Nouredine Benissad told AFP. Two co-accused in the trial, protest members Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, were sentenced to two years' jail each, said Benissad. "I just did my job as an independent journalist," he said, according to a statement by press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for which Drareni also works. RSF ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, five places lower than in 2019.

Source: Daily Nation August 10, 2020 10:52 UTC