In totalitarian regimes, journalism remains a high-risk profession. The director of the Algerian station Radio M. and the Maghreb Emergent news site, Ihsane El Kadi, has just paid the price, being sentenced last Tuesday to six months in prison for an analysis text published in March last on the Hirak, the popular movement calling since 2019 for the democratization of Algeria. He advocated, among other things, the inclusion, in this multi-faceted revolution, of the political, religious and conservative Rachad formation.
Accused of disseminating information “likely to undermine national unity” by the regime in place, Ihsane El Kadi has come to lengthen the long list of political opponents who, for several months, have been the target of the government of Abdelmadjid Tebboune. In the first six months of 2022, nearly 300 Algerians were placed behind bars for the same kind of crime of opinion, according to the organization Algerian Detainees, which takes into account an unprecedented crackdown in the Maghreb country. .
Since 2019, more than 600 citizens have been arrested for demonstrating or even simply supporting opposition to the regime in place.
“Military power has taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lull in weekly street protests it has brought about to start arresting Hirak activists. But it has never reached such a magnitude”, summed up in an interview with To have to the independent Algerian journalist Zoheïr Aberkane, himself a victim of these political arrests. He was sentenced to six months in prison for posting protest photos without the consent of police officers who appeared in the photos. A conviction based, like several others, on charges described as opportunistic by defenders of rights and freedoms.
“We have entered a third wave of arrests, which now coincides with the regime’s desire to prevent people from returning to the streets,” he continues. The authorities have been trying to stop the Hirak movement for a long time. But there, it became pathological, with an arbitrariness that is expressed in all its ugliness. »
Sign of the hardening of the regime in the face of the political opposition: after the Hirak activists, the demonstrators, the leaders of the opposition parties and the journalists, first in the line of sight of the power in place, it is now the lawyers of the accused who now find themselves indicted.
This is the case of Abdelkader Chohra and Yacine Khelifi, both lawyers for opposition leader Rachid Nekkaz, one of the strong figures of Hirak, who were brought before an Algerian court in recent weeks for “undermining the ‘unity of the country’. Among others. Their client, a 2019 presidential candidate, was also arrested for crimes of opinion last May.
At the beginning of June, an Algerian court also upheld the order for the imprisonment of lawyer Abderraouf Arslane, a member of the collective for the defense of Hirak detainees, placed in pre-trial detention at the end of May pending trial.
“What is this country that arrests its lawyers, drops French lawyer of Algerian origin Éloïse Zakya Sadeg in an interview. A lawyer is a defender of rights, and rights in Algeria, more than ever, are no longer respected at all. »
Ironically, M.me Sadeg hired the lawyer Yacine Khelifi to represent the family of a Hirak militant, Hakim Debbazi – his nephew – who died in prison last month, after being arrested for challenging the power in place. His crime? “He relayed a publication supporting the Hirak, assures the lawyer. He didn’t write a ticket. He forwarded content. That’s all. And he now leaves three orphans behind. »
The Algerian regime said the 55-year-old activist died of natural causes while incarcerated in Koléa prison near Algiers.
“This regime has no more respect for anything,” said Mr.me Sadeg. Algeria has a constitution which guarantees the fundamental rights, of speech, of assembly, of demonstrations of its citizens. The country has also ratified international treaties on human rights and respect for individual freedoms. The wave of arrests for crimes of opinion places the country in violation of its own Constitution and its international commitments. »
Appeasement and doubt
Approaching 60e anniversary of Algeria’s independence, which will be celebrated on July 5, sources quoted by the daily Arabic Post indicate that the military regime would be ready for a semblance of relaxation by preparing the release of political prisoners, whose growing number is becoming more and more embarrassing for it. To this end, the government seeks to convert criminal charges against political activists and human rights defenders into simple misdemeanors and then expose its political prisoners to reduced sentences corresponding to the time they have already served in prison, sums up the Arabic-speaking daily life.
At the same time, the Algerian president has been trying for several weeks to present himself as a “unifier”, according to the content of a government press release released in early May and calling for dialogue with the opposition parties and with members of Algerian civil society. A strategy regularly exploited by the former leader, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and his regime to ease social tensions while clinging to power.
Remember that it was the prospect of a sixth term for Bouteflika that triggered the Hirak. The departure of the former president and the representatives of his regime, then the establishment of a transition process that should lead to the advent of the rule of law remain at the heart of this popular demand.
“Deja vu and deja vu! We are still in the Bouteflika era, the same processes are there, and the purpose remains their maintenance [au pouvoir] “, summarized a few days ago Karim Tabbou, one of the leaders of Hirak, in the digital pages of the daily Algeria Share. “Through this ‘new political manoeuvre’, the power wants to impose [ce] sixth term while giving a new political appearance made of “consultations” with parties and the “civil representatives” of society. »
But in fact, continues the politician, arrested again by the Algerian authorities last May, after having publicly held the authorities responsible for the death of the activist Hakim Debbazi, “the authorities in place believe neither in democracy nor in notion of counter-power, neither to the free press, nor to independent justice”, he writes. “He thinks he’s above it all. […] and whoever expresses an opinion contrary to the official discourse is considered an enemy of the fatherland. »
In June 2021, an amendment to the Penal Code extended the qualification of terrorism to any attempt “to work or incite, by any means whatsoever, to gain power or change the system of governance by non-constitutional means”. This provision is increasingly used to quell political opposition, including that from the Algerian diaspora living abroad and sporadically returning to Algeria.
“The Algerian regime is unable to buy social peace, because the rupture in mentalities in Algeria, caused by the Hirak, is too great,” says Zoheïr Aberkane. This is why the Hirak and the hirakists always frighten power, even in a ghostly form. To protect himself, he therefore decided to put citizens under surveillance in addition to taking away their rights. »
“But is it tenable? he asks. For power can be held in place by the force of bayonets. But since it’s an aging power, at some point it’s going to fall. »