Algerian jailed for two years for filming police officers stealing

An Algerian court has sentenced a man to two years in prison for filming and posting a video of three police officers stealing during riots last year. The case has been widely criticised in Algeria and abroad.

Police in action in Ghardaia this year. AFP

An appeal court on Monday confirmed the sentence on Youcef Ouled Dada, who was found guilty of "publishing photographs and videos which harm the national interest" and "contempt for the authorities".

The prosecution had requested three years jail.

The 47-year-old computer technician, who has been in detention since 27 March, will also have to pay a fine of 100,000dinars (1,000euros).

Dada, a member of the Mozabite Berber minority, denied filming the video and claimed he just shared it on Facebook.

The incident took place during ethnic violence that erupted last November in the region of Ghardaia, in the south of the country,

“Instead of investigating what occurred, they have punished the person who made it public,” declared his lawyer, Me Amine Sidhoum, to the AFP news agency.

Gharhaïa is located at the gateway to the Sahara, 600 kilometres south of the capital, Algiers.

Between December 2013 and April 2014 at least nine people were killed and 400 injured and hundreds of houses and shops were looted and burned.