A British-Algerian journalist died Sunday after having staged a hunger strike to protest a two-year jail term for offending Algeria's president in a poem posted online, his lawyer said. "I can confirm the death of the journalist Mohamed Tamalt in Bab el-Oued hospital after a hunger strike of more than three months and a three-month coma" that followed, Amine Sidhoum said on Facebook.
The prison service, in a statement said Tamalt had died of a lung infection for which he was receiving treatment since it was detected on December 4.
Tamalt, a dual national, launched the hunger strike in protest after his arrest near his parents' house in the capital Algiers on June 27.
The 42-year-old blogger and freelance journalist who ran a website from London where he lived was charged with "offending" President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and "defaming a public authority" in the poem which he shared on Facebook.