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The Turin Court of Appeal said this morning that it would make a decision within five days as to whether to maintain or lift the restrictive measure of house arrest held against Alkarama's Legal Director, Rachid Mesli, since 22 August 2015. The Court also informed Me Mesli that the Algerian authorities had sent a formal request for extradition, although the information received was "vague and incomplete", and that it had therefore requested the Algerian authorities to send clarification and additional information without undue delay.

Today, the Italian Minister of Justice ordered that Rachid Mesli remains under house arrest until further notice. This week, Mesli's lawyer will address a request before the Turin Court of Appeal for his release until a hearing is set.

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Rachid Mesli is to remain under house arrest in Aosta at least until next Monday 31 August, time by which the deadline for the Algerian authorities to formally request his extradition expires. If the Italian justice does not receive any formal request by then, the case will be considered as closed and Me Mesli will be able to go back to Geneva to continue his work as Legal Director of Alkarama, the human rights organisation he co-founded in 2004 to assist victims of severe human rights violations in the Arab World.

The Italian justice has ordered today the release of Rachid Mesli, pending his appearance, on Tuesday, before the Turin Court of Appeal, which will have to rule on the extradition request following the arrest warrant issued by the Algerian authorities in 2002.

The Italian authorities are currently detaining Alkarama's Legal Director, Rachid Mesli, in the Italian prison of Aosta.

The Call for Nominations for the 2015 Alkarama Award for Human Rights Defenders is now open.

To nominate your human rights defender/organisation for the 2015 Award, please fill in the form available here before 7 September.

We are a coalition of human rights and humanitarian organizations working to protect and assist the civilians of Syria.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated globally on 3 May, Alkarama wishes to highlight the cases of the following activists, whose right to freely exercise their profession of journalists has been violated. Far from being exhaustive, this list wants to raise awareness of the general public on those cases by providing a brief overview of the phenomenon in some specific countries.

Algeria: A TV Show Closed for Denouncing Corruption