Algiers - (AFP) - Algerian security forces arrested journalist Ihsane El-Kady, director of "Radio M" and the news site "Maghreb Emargon", which were closed, according to the radio's website on Saturday evening, while an AFP reporter verified the matter.

Radio M's website wrote, "This evening, security services in civilian clothes raided the headquarters of Interfas Media, publisher of Radio M and Magrab Imagjon, in the presence of the director of the two sites and their founder, journalist Ihsan al-Qadi, who was handcuffed."

An AFP correspondent went to the headquarters of the two media outlets in the center of the Algerian capital, where the doors were closed while some journalists gathered.

Radio M published on its Facebook page that "the headquarters was waxed and the equipment" in it was seized.

According to the radio, Ihsan Al-Qadi was arrested at midnight on Friday-Saturday at his home in Boumerdes, east of the Algerian capital, and no news was known about him until he was taken to his workplace to attend the execution of a search warrant.

The director of "Radio M" and the "Morocco Imargon" news website is awaiting the decision of the Court of Appeal in the sentence issued against him in June to six months in prison with enforcement and a fine of 50,000 dinars (322 euros).

The case relates to a complaint filed by the Ministry of Communication against Ihsan al-Qadi after he published an article in March 2021 on the website of the online radio station Radio M, in which he defended Rashad's "right to participate in the popular movement" to demand democracy.

The Rashad movement is an Islamic organization that operates from outside Algeria, and the authorities classified it as a terrorist organization in May 2021.