Algerian government shuts down leading pro-reform group
Human rights groups say the situation in Algeria has been deterioriating, including the recent arrest of three lawyers for representing Hirak protesters.
A year ago, Algerian authorities shut down the popular pro-democracy reform movement known as Hirak, whose massive weekly Friday protests called for former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step aside and allow free and fair elections.
Following the 2019 elections, the Hirakists continued to campaign to change the system from the military one-party state installed by Houari Boumediene after the post-independence coup d’etat in1965. However, demonstrations were brought to an end in a crackdown last year resulting in the arrests of thousands of activists and over 300 held in pre-trial detention for up to a year, many under allegations of terrorism.
In protest against their imprisonment, some 40 detainees held in El-Harrach prison in Algiers began a hunger strike Jan. 28 ahead of the anniversary of the start of the Hirak movement on Feb. 16, 2019. Around 330 people were held in custody as of Feb. 5, according to the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, one of the human rights groups that have criticized the use of lengthy pretrial detentions as a tool of repression by the Algerian government.
Algerian society was shaken when activist Hakim Debbazi died in pre-trial detention April 24 in Kolea prison in the capital Algiers, after his arrest Feb. 22 for Facebook posts deemed critical of Tebboune’s regime. Amnesty’s Amna Guellali said, “It is quite shocking but it is not the first death in custody of someone detained solely for exercising his freedom of speech.”
