Three new activists known to "Hirak", the anti-regime protest movement in Algeria, were arrested on Sunday, we learned from NGOs defending human rights and prisoners.
Hakim Addad, Zoheir Keddam and Fodil Boumala, who have already been arrested previously, were arrested separately by the police in Algiers, Said Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, told AFP. (LADDH).
The reason for the arrests is not known
The exact reason for these arrests is not known. "For us, this does not participate in the appeasement and the return of serenity, on the contrary," said Saïd Salhi.
Human rights activist, Hakim Addad is a host of "Hirak" and a founding member of the Youth Action Rally (RAJ), an association at the forefront of the target protest against the repression of the authorities.
Fodil Boumala is a journalist who is due to appear on Tuesday for "undermining national unity". Arrested on September 18, 2019, he was acquitted on March 1 in first instance by a court in Algiers, and released after nearly six months in pre-trial detention, but the prosecutor appealed.
As for Zoheir Keddam, he is a member of the "orange vests" of the "Silmiya" ("Pacific"), a citizen "interposition force" whose mission is to prevent clashes between police officers and demonstrators and maintain calm which was the strength of the weekly “Hirak” marches.
The Covid-19 disease in Algeria does not prevent the authorities from prosecuting and convicting "Hirak" activists, political opponents, journalists and Internet users.
Currently about sixty prisoners of conscience
According to the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), a solidarity association, at least sixty prisoners of conscience are currently behind bars, most of them for Facebook publications.
On Saturday, three "Hirak" activists, Merzoug Touati, Yanis Adjila and Amar Beri, were imprisoned after trying to participate in a rally to support political prisoners in Bejaia, northeast of Algiers. They are to be tried on Wednesday.
They are notably accused of "incitement to unarmed assembly" and "endangering the lives of others during the period of confinement", according to Kaci Tansaout, spokesperson for the CNLD.
A resumption of mobilization with deconfinement?
Any form of assembly is strictly prohibited in Algeria due to the health crisis. After more than a year of mobilization, figures and organizations close to the "Hirak" had called for themselves to "temporarily" suspend the rallies while the pandemic raged.
But with the start of deconfinement, the government feared a resumption of demonstrations. Born in February 2019 from a huge fed-up of Algerians, the protest calls for a change in the "system" in place since independence in 1962. In vain so far, even if it obtained in April 2019 the departure of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after twenty years in power.
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