The Arab Spring might have led to President Bouteflika’s exit but the army has reversed any gains the pro-democracy movement achieved, silencing critics both at home and abroad. This article is published by Amnesty International. Here is an excerpt:

In February 2019, peaceful weekly protests known as “Hirak” swept Algeria. Initially opposing a fifth mandate of then-President Bouteflika, the protests have then called for “a complete change of the political system,” and saw millions of people marching through the streets of major Algerian cities and smaller towns demanding their human rights. and freedoms. After attempting to suppress the protests at the outset, the authorities shifted policy and largely tolerated them for several months.  However, that did not last for long as they increasingly targeted protesters, journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and bloggers, many of whom targeted with arbitrary arrests and prosecutions simply for engaging in peaceful protests and expressing political opinions on social media.

Harassment and Intimidation of Critics

The authorities’ harassment, intimidation and attack on dissidents continued to intensify throughout the months following the legislative elections of June 2021 and leading up to the third Hirak anniversary in February 2022. According to local watchdogs, as of May 2022, there are 266 activists and protesters who languish in Algerian prisons for having participated in the Hirak, denounced corruption publicly, reported lack of the rule of law, or spoken up in solidarity of the detainees and against human rights abuses. Many are held in pretrial detention for unjustified long periods of time, others sentenced to harsh sentences under problematic articles in the Penal Code such as “harming” the national security or interest, “undermining national unity”, “offending” public officials, “incitement” to unarmed gathering, spreading fake news, and terrorism.

Judicial harassment

Amnesty International talked to families of detainees and to their lawyers to learn about their conditions of detention, the judicial harassment they were subjected to and understand the extent to which these detentions have impacted their lives. These individual stories highlight the urgent need for the immediate and unconditional release of these detainees and fundamental reform of legislation that enable serious violations of people’s rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including possible torture and other ill-treatment. The documentation covers the stories of the following 7 individuals arrested under different circumstances and locations inside and outside Algeria: Mohad Gasmi, Merzoug Touati, Mohamed Benhlima, Malik Riahi, Soheib Debbaghi and Ahmad Tarek Debbaghi, Noureddine Khimoud.

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