Around 500 lawyers demonstrated in Algiers yesterday to denounce the arrests of activists of the protest movement, the "suppression of freedoms" and the demand for the release of those who have been awaiting trial for several months.
Lawyers gathered in the Sidi Mohamed court, in the center of the capital, before marching towards parliament, shouting "Free the judiciary" and "The defense wants the rule of law."
"The main purpose of our demonstration is to emphasize the rights of the defense. They are related to the rights of citizens, such as freedom of expression, movement and demonstration," lawyer Noureddine Ben Yassaad told AFP.
"Today we are witnessing an increase in arrests and prosecutions against citizens who are only guilty of expressing their views," said Ben-Yassaad, who is also president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights.
In front of the building of the National People's Assembly, the lawyers chanted "Lawyers angry at the justice of the phone" and "Defense is the voice of the people," before returning to their first gathering in the court.
The former lawyer and judge, Abdullah Habbol, said that the invitation of the National Union of Lawyers Organizations to demonstrate «comes in the framework of accompanying the popular movement for a radical change of the system».
The march also comes "to condemn the wave of arrests of the activists of the movement and put them in prison, in an attempt to break it."