Algerian blogger appeals against a 10-year jail sentence

The 30-year-old blogger submitted his appeal the following day and was feeling "optimistic", his lawyer Boubakeur Esseddik Hamaili said.

An Algerian blogger has appealed against a 10-year prison sentence, his lawyer said on Sunday.

This followed global rights groups condemnation of the severity of the sentence. A court in Bejaia, east of Algiers, convicted Merzoug Touati on Thursday for providing intelligence to "agents of a foreign power" likely to damage Algeria.

 The 30-year-old blogger submitted his appeal the following day and was feeling "optimistic", his lawyer Boubakeur Esseddik Hamaili said.

"I have seen my client, he is doing well and is a tower of strength. He proclaims his innocence, as he has done nothing but exercise his rights guaranteed by the constitution," the lawyer said.

Touati has been in prison since his arrest in January last year, over an online video interview with an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman and a Facebook post.