Two months after the decision of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to pardon Hirak activists, already convicted, and to grant provisional release to those who have not been finally tried, the prisons are filling again with prisoners of conscience. They are now 66, according to data updated by the site Algerian Detainees.
The Algerian authorities are opting for toughening up against the return of demonstrators to the streets every Tuesday and Friday. The popular protest movement, which began in early 2019, resumed at the end of February after a year of suspension due to a pandemic.
The regime now accuses the Hirak of being infiltrated by “Separatist circles” and “Illegal movements close to terrorism”, who would seek to drag him into violent action, as President Tebboune suggested on April 6, after a meeting of the High Security Council.
This was aimed in particular at the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (independence movement), which is banned but which does not recognize itself in the Hirak, and the Rachad movement, which includes certain elements of the former Islamic Salvation Front.
“True blessed Hirak”
In addition to the usual accusations of unarmed assemblies and attacks on national unity, there were recurring accusations of links with foreign countries. Nacer Meghnine, president of the very active cultural association SOS Bab-El-Oued, was remanded in custody on Tuesday, April 20, and other members under judicial supervision. A statement from the Algerian police called the association “Criminal”, accusing him of subversive activities, financed by the diplomatic representation of a large country, which is not cited.
In the purest style of official announcements for cases of banditry, the police broadcast images of members of the association, taken from behind, handcuffed, next to a table on which are placed printers, cameras, as well as placards carried by the Hirak demonstrators.
The process, which aroused indignation on social networks, is in line with the discourse of the regime, which believes it has responded to the demands of the “True blessed Hirak”. Today, according to the Minister of Communication and government spokesperson, Amar Belhimer, only one “Pseudo-Hirak” than “Some external parties are instrumentalizing in their war against Algeria”.
Monday April 19, Rabah Karèche, newspaper correspondent Freedom in Tamanrasset, in the far south of the country, was imprisoned for having covered a demonstration of Tuareg contesting the new administrative division decided by the public authorities. He is accused of broadcasting “Information liable to provoke segregation and hatred in society”, of “Deliberate dissemination of false information likely to endanger public order” and D’“Use of various means to undermine security and national unity”.
Usual management of Hirak
Accusations “Fallacious which badly hide a desire to silence the journalist and prevent him from carrying out his work in all objectivity”, reacted the newspaper Freedom, whose owner is businessman Issad Rebrab, boss of the Cevital group.
Concerns are also growing about the fate of twenty-two Hirak detainees on hunger strike since April 6. Arrested after a demonstration on April 3, they were remanded in custody and are being prosecuted for “Attack on national unity and unarmed assembly”. The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights also recalled the “Tragic cases of journalist Mohamed Tamalt and militant doctor Kamel Eddine Fekhar, dead in detention [en 2016 et 2019] “.
For political scientist Louisa Dris-Aït Hamadouche, repression is part of the regime’s usual management of Hirak and it has never stopped, even during confinement. But, she says in an interview with the newspaper El Watan, “Peaks” repression are generally recorded in connection with the deadlines that power sets itself.
“This peak was observed at the time of the presidential election [en décembre 2019], during the referendum [sur la révision de la Constitution, en novembre 2020] and, now, with the next legislative elections. “ These, set for June 12, are struggling to arouse the interest of Algerians. The political scientist also stresses that this is a paradoxical choice, because the regime, haunted by abstention, would have more chances of attracting voters. “By opening up the media and allowing individual freedoms that by filling the prisons”.