The mother and sister of political activist Amira Bouraoui, at the heart of a diplomatic incident between Algeria and France, were arrested in Algiers, an NGO and a media said on Sunday February 12.
Arrested on February 3 in Tunisia, from where she risked being expelled to Algeria, Amira Bouraoui was finally able to board on February 6 on a flight to France. Algiers judged it to be a “illegal exfiltration” and recalled its ambassador “for consultation”. This Franco-Algerian was subject to a ban on leaving the territory in Algeria.
In an official note to the French authorities, Algeria denounced ” a violation “ of its sovereignty, claiming that French diplomatic and security personnel had “participated in a clandestine and illegal exfiltration operation of an Algerian national”.
According to the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD) and the news site Radio M, the activist’s mother, Khadidja Bouaroui, 71, and her sister, Wafa, were arrested on Saturday evening by gendarmes in Algiers and their home was searched. The sister was released early on Sunday, but the mother “has been transferred” in Annaba (east), near the border with Tunisia, where it “risk of being presented today before the prosecutor”, said the CNLD. A cousin of the family was also arrested and placed in police custody in Annaba, according to the same sources.
After a severe cold snap in the fall of 2021, Paris and Algiers had sealed a warming of their relations during a trip by French President Emmanuel Macron to Algiers last August.