Newspaper convicted for 'offending president' - Algeria

[dArKeR]

Algiers, Algeria - An Algerian court convicted a journalist and his editor on Tuesday for "offending the chief of state" with an article about an alleged real estate scam by officials close to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, their newspaper said.

Farid Alilat, editor of Liberte daily, was handed a four-month suspended sentence and a 100 000 dinar (about R8 000) fine, staff at the newspaper said. Reporter Rafik Hamou was fined the same amount and the newspaper was ordered to pay two million dinars (about R210 000).

In July, Liberte published an article about an investigative report by another newspaper, El Khabar, alleging that many officials and others close to Bouteflika had been allowed to buy government-owned real estate at ridiculously low prices.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1067964121165B242&set_id=1

And I'm 99% sure the story is true!