Head of major Algeria media group Anis Rahmani sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption

The head of top Algerian media group Ennahar, Anis Rahmani, was sentenced to 10 years in jail on Monday for corruption.

Rahmani, whose real name is Mohamed Mokaddem, had been on trial for "misusing funds", "violation of foreign exchange regulations", "trading in influence to obtain undue advantages" and "making a false declaration", according to the official APS news agency.

El-Athir Presse, part of Ennahar, was also fined 274,000 euros (around $286,000).

Rahmani, 50, is already serving a three-year sentence confirmed by an appeals court in March 2021 for recording and broadcasting a telephone conversation with a senior intelligence officer.

Algerian sentences are not accumulated, meaning only the longest is actually served.

Rahmani has been in detention since February 2020, and was also sentenced in October that year to six months in prison for defamation in a separate case, concerning the Arabic-language magazine Echourouk Al-Arabi.

Rahmani's case follows a string of convictions against figures close to long-serving president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who quit office in April 2019 amid mass demonstrations and pressure from the army.

Launched in 2012, news channel Ennahar TV was seen as a weapon against Bouteflika's opponents.

During the presidential elections of 2019, it had criticised then-candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who later became president.