Algeria: many tributes after the death of Lakhdar Bouregaa, hero of independence
Algerian veteran Lakhdar Bouregaa, in November 2015. Ryad KRAMDI / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Lakhdar Bouregaa, 87, was affected by the coronavirus.
This independence veteran was also a figure for the Hirak protest movement which calls for a change of system at the head of the country.
Publicity
Read more
Lakhdar Bouregaa was highly respected by the young people of Hirak
.
They saw in him a bridge between the 1954 revolution to end colonization and that of Hirak to free himself from a system which, according to activists, strangled the country and its youth.
His arrest a year and a half ago sparked indignation in Algeria.
He then declared: "
I pity the judge who put me in prison without being able to look me in the eyes
".
His supporters considered that his conviction was in itself the symbol of the abuses of justice in Algeria, and that he was one of the many victims of a judicial system used to silence those who oppose the regime.
Opponent, he had always been, which had earned him eight years in prison during the time of President Boumediène.
With his frank words, his strong positions, and his opposition to Bouteflika's fifth term, long before the Hirak, the former commander remained true to himself.
In 1963, he participated in the founding of the National Liberation Front, an opposition party that has consistently defended democracy and freedoms in Algeria.
Affected by the coronavirus, at the same time as President Tebboune, he had remained for treatment in Algiers, unlike the latter
evacuated to Germany
.
A situation that did not fail to react on social networks.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Algeria
Coronavirus
On the same subject
Algeria: former boss of bosses, Ali Haddad, sentenced to twelve years in prison on appeal
Referendum in Algeria: the "yes" wins in this ballot marked by a record abstention
Algeria: President Abdelmadjid Tebboune transferred to a hospital in Germany