An Algerian journalist, Mohammed Tamalt who had been on hunger strike behind bars for three months has died.
His lawyer, Amine Sidhoum said “I can confirm the death of Mohamed Tamalt in Bab el-Oued hospital, which spanned from three months hunger strike and three months in coma.
Ceoafrica gathered that Tamalt, a blogger and freelance journalist who was also of British nationality, was arrested on 27th of June beside his parents’ house in the capital, Algiers.
He was charged with “offending” President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and “defaming a public authority” in a poem which he had shared on Facebook.
The blogger was slapped with a two-year jail term and a fine of 200,000 dinars (USD 1,800) with which he launched the hunger strike after an appeal court upheld the ruling a month later.
He used to run a website in London where he routinely published his articles and poems.
Rights campaigners had urged Algeria to release the blogger, saying the arrest and jail sentence showed Algiers’ intolerance of freedom of speech. The US-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement in August when Tamalt was reportedly in critical condition, saying the legal case against him had to be quashed.
However, prison authorities have denied Tamalt’s death was related to his hunger strike, saying he died of a lung infection for which he was receiving treatment since it was detected on 4th of December.
