Algeria: human rights defender Kaddour Chouicha acquitted on appeal

Text by: RFI Follow

In Algeria, the vice-president of the Algerian human rights league acquitted on appeal today in Oran. At first instance, Kaddour Chouicha had been sentenced to one year in prison. He was notably accused of contempt and violence against public officials and institutions, and exposure to the public of documents likely to harm the national interest.

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Kaddour Chouicha returns home, free. His cell phone will be returned to him. The Oran court decided to acquit him. It is a relieved man who speaks, on this Tuesday afternoon. For him, he explains, but also for his relatives, and for Algerian justice. " This means that there are still magistrates who only listen to their conscience and the regulations. Because the first magistrate who had convicted me is a magistrate who obeyed orders much more than looked at a file, because the file was really empty, "he told RFI.

The vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, 63, has been on provisional release since early January, after spending almost a month in detention.

Engaged in the protest movement born a year ago in Algeria, Kaddour Chouicha was sentenced to one year in prison in first instance in direct appearance, two days before the disputed presidential election of December 12. A conviction then denounced by several organizations, and qualified as political by his relatives.

This Tuesday, also in Oran, Afif Abderrahmane, who was prosecuted for wearing the Berber flag, was also acquitted and his flag will be returned.

On the side of activists and defenders of human rights, it is emphasized, however, that arrests continue in Algeria and that several dozen people are still being prosecuted, as part of the Hirak.

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