Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune signed a decree pardoning almost 3,500 people on Tuesday, a leniency measure which does not, however, concern detainees linked to the popular anti-regime protest movement ("Hirak"), the majority of whom are awaiting trial .
The head of state decided to "pardon the benefit of a first group of 3,471 detainees or non-detainees, sentenced definitively" and of which "their sentence remains only six months or less to serve," said the presidency, in a press release quoted by the official agency APS.
Cases "still in progress"
"This first group will be followed by a second which will include prisoners who have been sentenced definitively and whose sentence remains only twelve months or less to be served", according to the press release. However, the decree does not concern people imprisoned for acts linked to the "Hirak", the protest movement which has shaken power for almost a year.
"This pardon will not affect the movement's detainees because most of them have not yet been tried," Kaci Tansaout, coordinator of the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD), told AFP. "There will be no pardon for the" Hirak "detainees because their cases are still pending," added Mr. Yamina Alilli, member of a group of lawyers who defends them.
142 protesters incarcerated
The CNLD, a support association, has identified "142 demonstrators currently in pre-trial detention and 1,300 others who are the subject of legal proceedings for facts related to the presidential election campaign," Kaci Tansaout told AFP.
According to the latter, more than 200 opponents in total have been released, most since the beginning of the year. The presidential decree notably excludes prisoners convicted of corruption, drug trafficking or terrorism, according to local media.
Algerian authorities usually pardon prisoners on major national holidays such as July 5 (Independence Day) or November 1 (Revolution Day).
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