Algerian correspondent for the Le Figaro daily Arezki Ait-Larbi was acquitted May 30 of defamation charges by an Algiers court.
In 1997, the former prisons director in the Algerian Justice Department, Abdelkader Sellat, filed a lawsuit over an 1994 article by Ait-Larbi in which Ait-Larbi described torture of political prisoners in the country during the 1980s.
Following the acquittal, the Committee for the Support of Arezki Ait-Larbi demanded an inquiry into what it termed crimes against humanity, based on evidence that had come to light during the trial.
Source: El-Watan, Algeria, May 31, 2007; El-Khabar, Algeria, May 31, 2007
