More than a month after his arrest and imprisonment for crimes of opinion in Algeria, Lazhar Zouaïmia was released on Wednesday morning from El-Harrach prison, the Homework judicial sources and relatives of the Canadian citizen.
However, his release is provisional. The active activist of Hirak, the Algerian pro-democracy movement, remains under a ban on leaving Algeria, a measure preventing him from finding his wife and daughter in Montreal.
An expert technician at Hydro-Quebec, Lazhar Zouaïmia was arrested on February 22 at Mohamed Boudiaf airport in Constantine as he was preparing to return to Quebec after a family visit of a few days.
The man is accused of “praising terrorist acts through media and communication technology” and of “supporting and supporting a terrorist group” by the autocratic regime in place, which has intensified its repression for several weeks against his political opponents.
These heavily loaded formulations in Algeria – the country was hit by the violence of terrorism during the “dark decade” at the end of the 1990s – are used deliberately by the military in power in this country to crush the popular protest movement . Mr. Zouaïmia is a critical voice of the Algerian regime from Montreal, where he regularly participates in pro-democracy demonstrations orchestrated by the Algerian community. He is also an active human rights activist.
Since last June, a reform of the Algerian Penal Code has allowed the government of Abdelmadjid Tebboune to assimilate to “terrorism” and “sabotage” any call to “change the system of governance by unconventional means”.
Since his arrest, Mr. Zouaïmia has not been able to meet with representatives of Canadian Consular Affairs. A visit to the detainee was refused by Algerian authorities earlier this week, according to information obtained by The duty.
The Canadian national of Algerian origin took the road to the Annaba region to join the members of his family there.
Cycle of repression
The ongoing crackdown on Hirak activists has resulted in the arrest of more than 300 Algerians in recent months, as the movement celebrated its third anniversary a month ago.
The government of Abdelmadjid Tebboune no longer hesitates to attack the opposition expressed by Algerians established abroad and citizens of another country. In addition to Lazhar Zouaïmia, a Belgian national, Rachid Touam, and a French national, Amar Zebar, were arrested at the port of Algiers because of their involvement, too, in the so-called “smiles” revolution.
Amnesty International has strongly denounced this new round of repression in Algeria, which has led to the “temporary” suspension of the Socialist Workers’ Party (PST), an opposition party supporting Hirak, but also to the condemnation of Fethi Ghares, coordinator of the Democratic and Social Movement (MDS), an institution in the Algerian political landscape.