Mohammed Benchicou

Mohammed Boualem Benchicou (محمد بنشيكو; born 1952 in Miliana, Aïn Defla Province) was the director and publisher of the Algerian newspaper Le Matin (the sunrise), closed in August 2006.

Career
In 1989, he was one of the founders of the movement of Algerian journalists (MJA) a movement born during the opening of the media field. He then leads the team which relaunched Alger Républicain, banned from publication in 1965. Benchicou left Alger Républicain in 1991 with Saïd Mekbel and Fodil Mezali and founded the daily newspaper Le Matin of opposition.

In June 2004, he was sentenced to two years in prison for an infraction in money exchange regulation. In July, SIMPRAL, the Algiers-based government publisher, stopped printing Le Matin for its failure to pay a debt of 38 million dinars ($535,200)

PEN (the international association of writers) describes the prison in which Benchicou was in as harsh and infested with lice and cockroaches; with 50 prisoners to a cell. Benchicou's health has reportedly deteriorated since his imprisonment which caused him to develop arthritis; consequently, he lost the ability to use his right hand for writing.

Benchicou also published a book in 2004 called Bouteflika, an Algerian “fraud”, believed to be the source of all his juridic problems.

Personal life
Mohamed Benchicou is the eldest of a family of seven children. He is married and father of three children, two girls and a boy.

Awards and honors

 * 2006 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award