International

Source: Frontline Defenders
URL: [link]
Date: November 16, 2022

Joint Statement - Tunisia: Risk of refoulement of asylum seeker in cooperation with Algerian authorities would mark a dangerous turning point for human rights for Tunisia

The undersigned organizations express their deep concern at the risk of refoulement of an Algerian asylum seeker - Zakaria Hannache - present in Tunisia since August 2022. Tunisian authorities must under no circumstances repeat the dangerous precedent set by the kidnapping and refoulement of Algerian refugee Slimane Bouhafs on 25 August, 2021, about which no investigation has been opened to date in Tunisia.

Mr. Zakaria Hannache is an Algerian human rights defender, who has been prosecuted in Algeria since February 2022 under spurious charges, including charges of “apology of terrorism” and “undermining national unity”, for which he faces up to 35 years in prison, solely for exercising his freedom of expression through his work publishing information and documenting the arrests of prisoners of conscience.

After spending several weeks in prison in Algeria and then being granted provisional release in March 2022, Mr. Hannache continued to be subject to significant intimidation and pressure in Algeria, following which he came to Tunisia, in August 2022. On 9 November, Mr. Hannache was informed that he was summoned to the court of Sidi M'hamed, in Algiers, for a hearing as part of his trial. The hearing was postponed indefinitely and could now be scheduled at any point.

Multiple international human rights organizations, as well as several United Nations Special Procedures, have highlighted the excessively vague nature of the Algerian Penal Code, threatening the right to a fair trial and the proper functioning of justice. Anti-terrorist legislation has notably been used arbitrarily and almost systematically since 2021 to target peaceful activists and journalists.

In a communication made public on 14 November, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders expressed “serious concerns” about the arrest and detention of Mr. Hannache, as well as “the charges against him, which appear directly related to his work as a human rights defender”.

Our organizations recall that as an asylum seeker, Mr. Hannache is protected by the 1951 Geneva Convention, its 1967 Protocol and by the 1984 Convention against Torture, ratified by Tunisia, under which the authorities are required to protect him and not to return him under any conditions, in particular in view of the risk of arbitrary imprisonment and ill-treatment to which he is exposed in Algeria.

Consequently, our organizations demand that Tunisian authorities at the highest levels respect their international commitments with regards to the right to asylum and that they ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their legitimate activities without hindrance, regardless of their nationality, including in the context of their bilateral security cooperations.

SIGNATORY ORGANIZATIONS:

Action for Change and Democracy in Algeria (ACDA)

Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH)

Al Karama for Rights and Freedoms (Tunisia)

Amnesty International - Tunisia Section

Article 19

Association for the Defense of Individual Freedoms (ADLI-Tunisia)

Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Morocco (ASDHOM)

Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference (ADD-Tunisia)

Association of Maghrebian Workers in France (ATMF)

Association of Moroccans in France (AMF)

Autonomous General Confederation of Administration Workers (CGATA-Algérie)

Beity Association (Tunisia)

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

Collective for the Families of the Disappeared in Algeria (CFDA)

Collective of Lawyers for Change and Dignity (CACD-Algeria)

Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia

Damj - Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality

Dancers Citizens South (Tunisia)

Euro Mediterranean Federation against Enforced Disappearances (FEMED)

Euromed Rights

Front Line Defenders

Hassan El Saadawi Foundation for Democracy and Equality (Tunisia)

IBTYKAR (Algeria)

Intersection Action for Rights and Freedom (Tunisia)

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

Lawyers without Borders (ASF)

Legal Agenda - Tunisia

Marsad Nissa (Tunisia)

Mawjoudin We Exist (Tunisia)

MENA Rights Group

Mnemty - Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities

Nachaaz (Tunisia)

National Autonomous Union of Public Administration Professionals (SNAPAP-Algérie)

National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT)

Organization Against Torture in Tunisia (OCTT)

Psychologists of the World - Tunisia

Riposte Internationale (Algeria)

SOS Disappeared (Algeria)

Soumoud Coalition (Tunisia)

Taqallam for Freedom of Speech and Creativity (Tunisia)

Tawhida Ben Cheikh Group (Tunisia)

Tharwa N'Fadhma N'Soumeur (Algeria)

The Organization of Freedom Martyr Nabil Barakati: Memory and Loyalty (Tunisia)

Tunisian Association for Cultural Action (ATAC)

Tunisian Association for Positive Prevention

Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities (ATSM)

Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD)

Tunisian Alliance for Dignity and Rehabilitation

Tunisian Federation for Citizenship of the Two Shores (FTCR)

Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES)

Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH)

Tunisian Network for Transitional Justice

Union of Tunisians for Citizen Action (UTAC)

World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Source: North Africa Post
URL: [link]
Date: November 14, 2022

Fifteen NGOs have expressed serious concerns over the gross violations of human rights in Algeria and denounced the responsibility of the Algerian army in the deterioration of human rights in the Tindouf camps.

In a joint statement released this Monday at the end of a roundtable held at La Maison des Associations in Geneva, NGOS accredited to the Human Rights Council, human rights watchdogs, migration experts, and human rights defenders noted that at the end of Algeria’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), they remain seriously concerned about the gross human rights violations in the country, including the right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, right of association and freedom of the press.

They also voiced concern over the non-compliance by the Algerian human rights council with the Paris Principles, human trafficking and systematic violations of migrants’ rights, all practices that were debated by the States during the UPR of Algeria, held on November 11, 2022.

Likewise, the signatories recalled the recommendations made during Algeria’s UPR, mainly the abrogation of the amendments it brought to its penal code in 2021, which contain a broad definition of terrorism and under which many peaceful dissidents are in jail on bogus terrorism charges; exprtessing in this connection concern over the reprisals suffered by the 250 prisoners of conscience accused of terrorism.

The UPR also urged Algeria to ratify some international instruments, such as the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against torture.

Regarding the treatment reserved by Algeria to Sub-Saharan migrants, they expressed outrage at the mass expulsion of more than 17,000 migrants sub-Saharan, urging the government to end systematic expulsion practices of migrants and their abandoning at “point zero” in the desert.

The joint statement signatories also brought up the situation in the Tindouf Camps, denouncing the recruitment of child soldiers and stressing the need for the host country to cooperate with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the fate of children in armed conflict.

They urged the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to set up rehabilitation programs for child soldiers in the Tindouf Camps and make them benefit from specific protection measures against their exploitation by terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and Sahara region.

They likewise denounced the devolution of military, administrative and judicial powers in the camps to the polisario front, noting the responsibility of the Algerian army in the increase of serious human rights violations in the Tindouf camps, and calling on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to ensure respect for the civilian nature of the Tindouf camps and ensuring the census of the population.

© 2022 The North Africa Post. All rights reserved.

by Alice Summers
Source: World Socialist Web Site
URL: [link]
Date: June 13, 2022

A death sentence against Algerian whistle blower and activist Mohamed Benhalima was announced by an Algerian military court, only two months after Spain’s PSOE (Socialist Party)-Podemos government denied his asylum application and deported him. Benhalima was made aware that the death penalty had been handed down against him on May 8, although his lawyers report that the sentence was imposed in absentia, while Benhalima was still in Spain.

Benhalima, a former officer, fled Algeria for Spain in 2019, after learning that his name was on a list compiled by the Algerian authorities of servicemen wanted for their involvement with the Hirak movement. He had taken part in mass anti-government protests triggered in February 2019 by former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s announcement of his fifth presidential candidacy. While the demonstrations forced Bouteflika out of office in April of that year, the military regime he headed remains in power.

In Spain, Benhalima built a reputation on social media as an opponent of the Algerian military regime. He amassed more than 345,000 followers on his Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages, where he posted videos exposing and denouncing corruption in the Algerian armed forces.

Benhalima’s deportation is a damning indictment of Spain’s nominally “progressive” PSOE-Podemos government. It is a blatant violation of international law, which forbids deporting individuals to a country where they risk suffering torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The PSOE and Podemos are sending an unmistakable signal that they will act brutally to avert any challenge from below to the existing social order.

According to Amnesty International, Benhalima entered Spain on September 1, 2019 on a Schengen Zone visa, applying for political asylum in February 2020. He was given a temporary residence permit, which he later renewed, making it valid until November 2021. However, in August 2021, he received summons to a police station in Bilbao, Spain. Fearing deportation back to Algeria, Benhalima fled to France, but was later arrested and sent back to Spain.

On March 14, 2022, Benhalima was detained by Spanish authorities. They filed an expulsion order against him for allegedly infringing Article 54.1.a of Spain’s immigration law, claiming that he participated in “activities contrary to public security or which may be harmful for Spanish relationships with foreign states.”

This was based on flimsy allegations that Benhalima is tied to the Algerian Islamist opposition group Rachad, which Algiers listed as a terrorist organisation last year. UN Special Procedures human rights experts stated in December 2021 that the definition of “terrorism” in the Algerian Penal Code was too imprecise and undermined human rights.

An Algerian court had already sentenced Benhalima in absentia in January and March 2021 to 20 years in prison, for charges of alleged “participation in a terrorist group” and “publishing fake news undermining national unity,” among other accusations.

Four days after Benhalima’s arrest in Spain, he applied for asylum a second time, while detained in an internment camp in Valencia. At 17:35 on March 24, he was then told his second application had been unsuccessful; just three minutes later he was notified of his expulsion. Two hours after that, Spanish authorities forced Benhalima aboard a plane back to Algeria, where he was detained on arrival.

Benhalima appeared in a clip on Ennahar TV on March 27, in which he appears to “confess” to having conspired against the state and says he had not been ill-treated in custody. Just two days before his deportation from Spain, Benhalima had warned that he would likely be forced to make a false confession if detained by the Algerian regime, most likely be because he had been “subjected to severe torture at the hands of intelligence services.”

On March 21, 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had written to the Spanish government calling for Benhalima’s case not to be expedited, arguing that the risk of torture was credible, and that the Algerian regime’s criminalisation of political opposition is well known.

In March, while detained in Valencia, Benhalima had told Spanish media outlet Levante EMV: “If I return to Algeria, they’re going to violate my human rights. Prison and torture are waiting for me. First, I will have a trial for having revealed corruption in my country … Then I fear that they will torture me in a military prison, that I’ll suffer sexual violence, or even that they’ll kill me and then say that I caught coronavirus.”

Benhalima is the second Algerian whistle blower to be deported from Spain and then imprisoned in Algeria in under a year. Last August, former border patrol officer Mohamed Abdellah—who sought asylum in Spain after exposing alleged corruption, bribery, fraud, and cross-border arms and petrol smuggling by high-ranking officers of the Algerian Gendarmerie—was forcibly returned to Algeria by the PSOE-Podemos government.

On his arrival in Algeria, Abdellah was handed to the intelligence service and taken to the Antar barracks in Algiers, notorious as an interrogation and torture site. As of January this year, Abdellah was being held in isolation at the Blida military prison, awaiting trial for undermining state security and the reputation of the army. Since then, there has been little information on his whereabouts.

The PSOE-Podemos government’s decision to deport Benhalima has been widely acknowledged in the bourgeois media as a goodwill gesture to the Algerian dictatorship. Algerian–Spanish relations have been tense since PSOE Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recognised Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara in mid-March.

The Western Sahara is a sparsely inhabited former Spanish colonial possession on Morocco’s south-western border, with considerable mineral and phosphate deposits, which Rabat has long sought to bring under its administration as an “autonomous region.”

After Spain ended its long-standing stance of neutrality in this dispute, Algeria, which has backed the pro–Sahrawi independence Polisario Front, withdrew its ambassador from Madrid. Just five days later, the PSOE and Podemos expelled Benhalima from Spain, in an apparent attempt to curry favour with Algeria, which provided more than 40 percent of Spain’s natural gas imports in 2021. This comes as the European Union and NATO campaign for an energy embargo against Russia, the EU’s major oil and gas supplier, amid the war in Ukraine.

The treatment of Benhalima and Abdellah gives the lie to claims by the PSOE-Podemos government, as part of the NATO alliance, to be defending “democracy” and “human rights” in Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The Spanish government has no problem violating the rights of asylum seekers and tacitly condoning the arbitrary detention, torture and murder of political prisoners.

The PSOE and Podemos already have the blood of thousands of refugees on their hands. By blocking off “legal” routes to enter Spain, they forced desperate migrants to make perilous boat journeys across the Mediterranean to mainland Spain or the Atlantic to the Canary Islands, leading to thousands of deaths at sea. Taking its cue from the far-right Vox party, it built prison camps on the Canary Islands, separated children from their parents, and summarily deported thousands of asylum seekers without even examining their cases.

By deporting Benhalima, the PSOE and Podemos aim to terrorize workers and youth in Algeria opposed to the regime. They aim not only to block renewed eruptions of class struggle threatening the existing regime in Algeria, which is complicit in their anti-refugee policies. After Podemos and the PSOE have deployed tens of thousands of heavily armed police against strikes by metal workers and truckers over the last year in Spain itself, it is apparent that the target of this escalation of police-state terror is the entire working class.

© 1998-2022 World Socialist Web Site. All rights reserved.

by Eric Goldstein
Source: Human Rights Watch
URL: [link]
Date: May 26, 2022

Efforts to Crush Domestic Protests Reaches Algerians Abroad

Compared to the most brazen practitioners of pursuing political opponents abroad – Saudi Arabia, for example, dismembering journalist Jamal Khashoggi – Algeria has garnered little attention.

But activists within Algeria’s diaspora are fearful, after several cases that seem to complement government efforts to crush the three-year-old peaceful protest movement known as the “Hirak.”

On March 24, Spain issued an expulsion order against former army corporal Mohamed Benhalima and flew him the same day to Algeria, which had reportedly issued an international arrest warrant for him. Benhalima had fled to Spain in 2019 fearing reprisals, he said, after participating in Hirak street protests. In Europe, Benhalima maintained a YouTube channel denouncing military officials.

Spain twice rejected Benhalima’s asylum application before sending him to Algeria, despite the UN Refugee Agency’s urging Spain to take into account the credible risk of torture and Algeria’s criminalization of peaceful opposition. Benhalima’s lawyer in Spain has appealed his expulsion.

After getting him back, Algerian authorities promptly jailed Benhalima and tried him for publishing “false information” that harms “territorial integrity” – charges that authorities have used to imprison many of the hundreds of Hirak activists currently or formerly imprisoned.

A court had already sentenced Benhalima to 10 years in prison in absentia for these offenses. Another court reportedly sentenced him to death in absentia, for espionage and desertion.

Slimane Bouhafs had been a UN-recognized refugee in Tunisia. He had left Algeria after serving 18 months of a prison term for “insulting Islam.” Bouhafs, a convert to Christianity, advocates for the rights of Algeria’s Kabyle (Berber) population. On August 25, 2021, witnesses reported seeing men in plainclothes abduct him from his home in Tunis. Four days later he surfaced in police custody in Algiers.

Neither Tunisian nor Algerian authorities have claimed responsibility for Bouhafs’ transfer to Algeria. A promise by Tunisian President Kais Saied to investigate the case went nowhere. Algerian authorities, meanwhile, claim that they arrested him inside Algeria. Bouhafs is in jail, awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges.

Algeria in 2021 broadened the definition of terrorism in penal code article 87bis to include “attempting to gain power or change the system of government through non-constitutional means,” an expansive definition authorities use to prosecute nonviolent opponents, most recently the pro-Hirak journalist Ihsane El Kadi.

This year, at least three Algerian-Canadian binationals were arbitrarily prevented from flying back to Canada and interrogated about their Hirak links. Two of the three were allowed to depart, three months after their initial attempts.

The message is clear: Algerians who speak out need to look out, no matter where they live.

© 2022 Human Rights Watch

by: Press Release
Source: Amnesty International
URL: [link]
Date: March 15, 2022

Responding to the news that the Spanish authorities are planning to deport Mohamed Benhlima, an Algerian asylum-seeker, whistleblower and anti-corruption activist, Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

“The Spanish authorities are deeply aware of the grim fate that awaits Mohamed Benhlima if they deport him. Over the last two years, the Algerian authorities have stepped up their brazen prosecution of activists as they seek to crush all forms of dissent.

“The international community has a moral responsibility to stand up for those who expose human rights violations and raise their voice against corruption. Spain must immediately quash its plans to deport Mohamed Benhlima and respect the principle of non-refoulement.

“Under international law, nobody should be returned to a country where they would be in danger of suffering torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Deporting Mohamed Benhlima would represent a serious violation of Spain’s obligations under international human rights law.”

Background

Mohamed Benhlima is an Algerian citizen and a former military official turned whistleblower who exposed corruption among Algeria’s high-ranking military officials in 2019.

He fled to Spain in September 2019 after being informed that his name was on a list of wanted military officials after he participated in the Hirak protest movement. He has since sought asylum in both Spain and France.

On 7 January 2021, he was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for sharing videos online that exposed corruption within the military.

Amnesty International has documented the use of torture and other ill-treatment by Algerian security forces in at least four cases of activists arrested over the past three years for their participation in the Hirak.

In a similar case, Spanish authorities extradited on 20 August 2021 former military official and asylum-seeker Mohmed Abdellah, who had sought refuge in Spain in November 2018 after he had publicly accused the Algerian military of corruption. Upon his extradition to Algeria, Mohmed Abdellah was taken directly to the “Antar” high security centre in Algiers. He remains in detention to date. During a court hearing on 2 January 2022, he publicly stated that he was subject to torture and ill-treatment in detention.

© 2022 Amnesty International

Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
URL: [link]
Date: Deptember 7, 2021

Algerian police said Monday that they had arrested 27 people suspected of belonging to a separatist group that Algiers considers a "terrorist" organization.

The individuals were arrested over the previous 48 hours in a case involving "undermining national unity, harming public order and inciting a gathering", on suspicion of belonging to the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK), authorities said in a statement.

It said 25 people were arrested in Kherrata, which last week saw clashes between protesters and police after a march in support of prisoners of conscience was banned.

AFP quoted the statement as saying that security forces were wounded during the clashes in the town, which is located in the traditionally restive northeastern Kabylie region.

Two other people were arrested in an area around 60 kilometers away, according to the statement.

Items including "military clothing, bladed weapons" and MAK material were found in the individuals' homes, it added.

The suspects were trying to "sow strife and fear among citizens and re-activate sleeper cells of this terrorist organization, on the order of foreign parties", the statement said.

Algeria's Human Rights League (LADDH) on Sunday had called for the release of more than 20 people who it said had been arrested.

Separately, the LADDH said that authorities had arrested "journalist and human rights defender Hassan Bouras" on Monday and searched his home in northwestern El Bayadh.

It said it did not know the reason for Bouras's arrest.

Bouras, who is also a LADDH member, had been sentenced to a year in prison in 2016 for "insulting a judge, a public forces member and a government body".

Rights group Amnesty International at the time called Bouras a "prisoner of conscience" and said he had been sentenced "for a video denouncing corruption of local officials in the city of El Bayadh".

According to prisoners' rights group CNLD, around 200 people are in jail in connection with the Hirak pro-democracy protest movement that has shaken the country sporadically since 2019, or over individual freedoms.

Kherrata is seen as the cradle of the protests.

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by The New Arab Staff and Agencies
Source: The New Arab
URL: [link]
Date: June 21, 2021

Algerian human rights activist Fatiha Briki has been detained with official reason given for her arrest, according to her family and a prisoners' rights group.

Algerian human rights activist Fatiha Briki has been detained by authorities and no official reason has been given for her arrest, her family and a prisoners' rights group said Monday.

Briki, a retired university teacher and a member of prisoners' rights group CNLD, was arrested on Thursday and her home searched, according to the CNLD.

"I believe that her work on behalf of detainees is the root cause for her arrest," Said Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), said.

Authorities have not commented on the arrest of Briki, who is also a member of an anti-torture association.

Her family called for her "immediate release" in a statement, and said they tried but were prevented from visiting her on Sunday at her place of detention.

"Fatiha is well both physically and psychologically. Her place is not in prison," the statement added.

Briki took part in the weekly anti-government protests organised by the Hirak movement, until such rallies were banned by the interior ministry ahead of the June 12 parliamentary election.

The vote, which was won by Algeria's long-dominant National Liberation Front, was boycotted by the Hirak and saw a record low turnout of 23 percent.

Ahead of the election, authorities had arrested a string of opposition figures, activists, journalists and lawyers, although some were quickly released with no reason given for their detention.

At least 260 people connected to the protest movement or other organisations pressing for more rights are currently in detention in Algeria, according to the CNLD.

© 2021 The New Arab

by Jasper Hamann
Source: Morocco World News
URL: [link]
Date: June 12, 2021

Upcoming changes in the Algerian penal code will allow its regime to charge journalists and critics as terrorists.

Rabat - Algeria is expanding its Terrorism Act to the extent that it will be able to prosecute its critics and journalists on terrorism charges. An update was published on June 10 that indicates that Algeria’s unpopular regime is broadening the definition of terrorism to include charges commonly levied against journalists, anti-establishment protesters, and even online critics.

Ahead of a weekend of legislative elections, the move appears to constitute another increase in repressive measures by Algeria's ruling elite in the face of domestic opposition and calls for structural reform.

The revisions to the penal code were initiated by the country’s embattled leadership and was discussed and adopted in one session of the country’s Council of Ministers on May 30. Officials in Algiers have indicated that the revised penal code intends to strengthen efforts to combat terrorism, by estbalishing a list of “terrorist people and organizations.”

How the upcoming terrorist “black list”would help combat terrorism, few could explain.

A closer examination of the changes made to the penal code reveals a broad expansion of what the state considers terrorism. While the broadening of the term is indeed likely to lead to increased arrests on terrorism charges, the penal code revisions have no provisions that would actually arrest more extremists.

Instead, the new penal code now considers "any act aimed at the security of the state, national unity and the stability and normal functioning of institutions,” as a terrorist act.

This expansion is likely to concern journalist, Hirak protesters and government critics, as the terms defined as “terrorism” are the exact charges commonly used to arrest whomever the regime considers to be a critic.

The new penal code furthermore acts as an active deterrent to political change in Algeria. Algiers will now consider any action “to work or incite, by any means whatsoever, to gain power or to change the system of governance by non-constitutional means" as an act of terrorism.

The vast broadening of Algeria’s penal code is likely to result in its new “black list” being leveraged as a tool to scare critics and reporters into silence, in fear of being listed as a terrorist. Furthermore it will allow the regular prosecution of the country’s journalists to now be done under the guise of “combatting terrorism.”

Several of the charges described as terrorist acts have before been used to silence and imprison government critics, from established journalists such as Khaled Drareni (who was arrested again this week) to every-day citizens voicing their frustrations on social media.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Source: The Tennessee Tribune/Zenger News
URL: [link]
Date: March 16, 2021

A call by the United Nations for Algeria’s government to investigate allegations of human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary arrest and sexual assault, has so far gone unanswered.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on March 5 urged Algeria to launch “a quick, impartial and rigorous investigation” into allegations of severe human rights abuses against pro-democracy demonstrators.

Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the office of the high commissioner, said there were “credible reports” of torture by security forces, and that the United Nations was very concerned about deteriorating conditions in the country.

Thousands of Algerians have been taking part in demonstrations, known as Hirak, calling for a change in government and an end to the military’s control of political affairs. The demonstrations, which began in February 2019, resumed earlier this year after a hiatus due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“We are deeply concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Algeria and the continued and growing repression of members of the pro-democracy Hirak movement,” Colville said.

He said hundreds of demonstrators have been prosecuted and at least 32 are currently detained. Some detainees were also arrested for posting messages on social media that criticized the government. Some have received long prison sentences for their part in pro-democracy activities.

PHOTO: A student protester who was beaten by police during a peaceful demonstration in March 2020 in Algiers.

The OHCHR said it was calling for an end to the violent repression, arrests and detentions. It also requested that Algeria give “immediate and unconditional release” to pro-democracy demonstrators and drop all charges against them.

Support for Algeria’s pro-democracy movement has come from the Algerian diaspora in France and Canada. Many in the diaspora have filed complaints and cases with the United Nations, denouncing the torture and human rights violations.

PHOTO: This image of Walid Nekkiche includes a statement about his claims of torture while in detention.

Among the cases brought to the attention of the OHCHR is that of Walid Nekkiche, a 25-year-old student who was allegedly raped with a broomstick by security forces while in custody. Nekkiche was released after charges of conspiracy against the state were dropped.

Another case before the OHCHR is that of activist Sami Darnouni, who has been in custody since December 2020. He was sentenced on March 2 to two years in prison on charges of undermining national security and incitement.

His lawyers deny the charges and say that Darnouni was “forced to confess under torture” during his interrogation at the Antar barracks. They said he was stripped, beaten and tortured with electric rods at the barracks in Ben Aknoun in Algiers, where he was transported after his arrest in Tipaza in northwest Algiers.

“The accusations against him are completely false and unjust,” said his lawyer, Haboul Abdellah. “There is no evidence of Mr. Darnouni’s involvement in any crime.”

When Darnouni’s trial began on Feb. 26, the prosecutor’s office of the Court of Tipaza requested that he be given a 10-year prison sentence.

The OHCHR has highlighted Darnouni’s case and that of at least 2,500 others who were arrested or detained during peaceful demonstrations as evidence of the use of excessive force by Algerian security forces.

Criminal proceedings initiated in 2019 and 2020 are continuing against activists, human rights defenders, students, journalists, bloggers and other citizens, the United Nations agency said.

The agency wants Algerian authorities to repeal the country’s laws under which protesters can be prosecuted for expressing negative opinions about the government or assembling peacefully to protest.

Meanwhile, harsh repression of Hirak demonstrations continues, with reports of elderly Algerians being beaten and of a 7-year-old child being picked up by police in the past week.

(Edited by Jewel Carmella Fraser and Judith Isacoff)

The Tennessee Tribune. Copyright © 2020.

Source: The North Africa Post
URL: [link]
Date: March 8, 2021

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has officially called on the Algerian authorities to conduct “prompt and impartial investigations” into the allegations of torture and sexual abuse suffered by several inmates arrested during the Hirak who openly denounced the ill-treatment inflicted on them by the security services while in police custody.

Rupert Colville, Spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, officially called on the Algerian authorities to “prompt and impartial investigations” into the allegations of torture and sexual abuse made by several detainees in the country. Hirak who openly denounced the ill-treatment inflicted by the security services while in police custody.

In a statement posted Friday on the website of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Spokesman Rupert Colville said the UN body has instructed the Algerian regime to “conduct rapid, impartial and effective investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment in detention.”

Rupert Colville also demanded that the Algerian authorities “hold to account all those responsible” for these infamous practices of torture “and to ensure that the victims have access to reparations.”

“We urge the authorities to repeal the legal provisions and policies used to prosecute people who exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and peaceful assembly,” said Rupert Colville.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also brought up the issue of prisoners of conscience. The UN body called for the release of all those imprisoned for their political opinions and activities in favor of Hirak.

“We urge the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those arbitrarily arrested or detained for allegedly supporting the Hirak and to drop all charges against them,” Rupert Colville stated.

The UN body also denounced the resort to excessive force by Algerian security forces to suppress the peaceful demonstrations.

“There have been numerous instances across the country where security forces have used unnecessary or excessive force and arbitrary arrests to suppress peaceful demonstrations,” UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said.

“These developments echoed what happened earlier in 2019 and 2020, during which a total of at least 2,500 people were arrested or detained in connection with their peaceful activism,” he said.

“Similarly, the criminal prosecution in 2019 and 2020 of activists, human rights defenders, students, journalists, bloggers and ordinary citizens expressing dissent continued during the first two months of this year,” he added.

Since mid-February, thousands of Algerians have defied Covid-19 restrictions and took to the streets of Algiers and other cities across the country to commemorate the second anniversary of the Hirak movement and renew their demands for the end of the military junta rule and the establishment of a civilian democratic state.

© 2021 The North Africa Post .