The whole story of Echrouk interview with Achour Abderrahmane

Echorouk has been used to publish stories about prison and prisoners every year after getting permits from the Algerian justice ministry. Two of its journalists were authorized to enter El Harrach and Serkadji prisons to make an interview with Algeria’s most famous prisoner Achour Abderrahmane who is accused of embezzling more than 21 billion DZ.

Prisons director and Serkadji director apply law

Prisons general director Mokhtar Felioune and Serkadji director have respected jails law since the beginning. They stressed the necessity of respecting prisoners’ dignity and their personal freedom.

Serkadji director asked journalists to talk to baccalaureate successful candidates only

Serkadji general director asked Echorouk’s journalists to talk to prisoners who passed the baccalaureate or the BEM exams only.

At the prison library, there was a man sentenced to 12 years in prison on corruption-related charges. Another man was involved in drugs exporting. They were reading books. At a corner, a heavy man was sitting and reading the Quran. Next to him, there was a prisoner who passed the exam. He talked to Echorouk.

The interview with Achour Abderrahmane

Achour Abderrahmane was the man who was reading the Quran. The first question Echorouk asked him was about the baccalaureate exam as he passed it. The other questions were spontaneous and not previously prepared as journalists did not expect to see him in Serkadji.

Prison guards did not allow the journalists to ask questions about the embezzlement case.

Lawyers: there is no law which forbids interviews with prisoners

A number of lawyers raised questions about reasons behind the dismissal of Serkadji general director. They believe that it is illogic to dismiss him because of the interview with Achour Abderrahmane as he did not commit any crime.

According to lawyer Miloud Ibrahimi, the initiative of opening prisoners to journalists should be valorized.

“Journalists in world press are allowed to write stories about prisoners. Achour Abderrahmane is not a dead person. Opening prisoners means that authorities have nothing to hide,” he said.

“Prisoners can not be punished for talking. This is illogic. As long as they breath, they have the right to talk,” he added.

Lawyer Saleh Debbouz believes that the dismissal is an administrative punishment. “Journalists are not allowed to publish information which hit judicial investigation process. Yet, it did not happen in Achour Abderrahmane’s case as he got a final sentence.”

He added that prisoners have the right to talk to journalists. “If journalists get the opportunity to make an interview with demons, they will do that.”

He described Achour Abderrahmane’s remarks as “clever” as he did not criticized justice and respected the law.

Member of the Lawyers’ International Commission Sadek Chaib said the dismissal is illogic as the journalists was authorized by the justice ministry.

“The interview did not contain any defamation neither did it hit justice. The prison director did not do anything wrong. The permit is legal and the interview was conducted in a legal way. Furthermore, the prisoner did not make neither wrong nor offending statements,” he told Echorouk.

President of the National Consultative Commission of Human’s Rights Promotion and Protection Farouk Ksentini said the dismissal was decided following an “administrative error.”

“It is not about a crime. The director did not make an error by letting journalists to talk to prisoners because they had a written permit,” he added.

“I submits a periodical report about prisoners to the President of the Republic which contains their remarks. It is published by the press with no problem.”