He is one of the most popular figures in Hirak, the anti-regime protest movement in Algeria. The prosecutor of a Algiers court requested, Wednesday, March 4, a sentence of four years in prison against the opponent Karim Tabbou, figurehead of the protest movement that has shaken Algeria for more than a year.
Leader of the Democratic and Social Union (UDS), a small unregistered opposition party, Karim Tabbou, 46, is accused of "inciting violence" and "damaging the morale of the army" . Since the end of September, he has been in pre-trial detention.
His trial opened in the morning at the Sidi M'hamed court in Algiers. The prosecutor requested a four-year prison sentence, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. The verdict is expected late at night, according to defense lawyers.
Some 180 lawyers have formed to defend it, according to the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), a solidarity association.
Witnesses said the police tried unsuccessfully to break up a support rally in court and made several arrests.
A gathering on the sidelines of the trial
A hundred sympathizers still demonstrated early in the evening near the court with cries of "Free Karim Tabbou and all the detainees!", Noted an AFP journalist.
"Today, tomorrow, Tabbou will always be present!" or "Where is the justice, where is the law?" chanted the demonstrators.
Among the protest figures present at the trial are two former detainees: Lakhdar Bouregaâ, 86, a highly respected veteran of the Revolutionary War, and Fodil Boumala, a former journalist for national television and co-founder of a citizen movement in opposition, according to local media.
>> Read also: Algeria: a year later, what results for the Hirak?
Before founding the UDS, Karim Tabbou had been from 2007 to 2011 first secretary of the Front des forces socialistes (FFS), Algeria's oldest opposition party.
Several dozen people prosecuted
Placed in detention for the first time on September 12, 2019 after being charged with "attacking the morale of the army" by a court, he was released on September 25. Re-arrested the next day, he was charged with "incitement to violence" and again imprisoned.
Dozens of people remain prosecuted and detained in the context of the "Hirak", according to human rights organizations, their precise number being difficult to establish due to the releases and the arrests which follow one after the other.
With AFP
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