Algiers (AFP)
Algerian police prevented the weekly march of the Hirak pro-democracy movement in Algiers on Friday and made numerous arrests of activists, opponents and journalists, including a photographer from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Demonstrators, who were preparing to participate in the Hirak rally in the center of the capital were jostled and arrested, noted an AFP journalist and witnesses.
An AFP photographer, Ryad Kramdi, was arrested in the popular district of Bab El Oued, stronghold of the protest, and taken to a local police station.
He was released in the evening, without explanation, after being held for eight hours.
"We were treated well but it was very, very stressful," said the photographer.
At least a dozen other journalists and photographers have been arrested, including Khaled Drareni, correspondent in Algeria for the French-language channel TV5, Kenza Khatto, journalist at Radio M, and a videographer for the international Reuters agency, according to websites. independent information.
Mr. Drareni, director of the Casbah Tribune news site, was released in the evening, according to this online media.
The Algerian correspondent of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has become a symbol of the fight for press freedom after being jailed for ten months for covering a Hirak demonstration in March 2020.
"Several journalists were arrested & prevented from covering the 117th Hirak Friday demonstration while others were molested by the police," RSF tweeted.
A group of journalists was released at the end of the afternoon, according to the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD), an association helping prisoners of conscience.
- "Very stressful" -
The CNLD reported numerous arrests in the country, including Hirak figures, lawyers and opponents, such as the president of the Rassemblement pour la culture et la democratie (RCD), Mohcine Belabbas, and the former detainee and activist. of Hirak Dalila Touat.
Most of those arrested generally recover their liberty while waiting to be summoned to court.
Like every Friday in Algiers, the Hirakists gathered after the Friday prayers but the police forces, in large numbers, surrounded the Errahma mosque, the starting point of the march, and dispersed the crowd unceremoniously.
Dozens of people were then arrested, according to witnesses.
A few dozen demonstrators nevertheless managed to march, chanting "Civil status and not military", a flagship slogan of the protest.
"We won't stop, whatever you do," the protesters shouted at the authorities.
Some headed for Bab El Oued, a stronghold in Hirak, where several dozen people gathered.
The police stopped them from walking.
Elsewhere, in the provinces, marches were held in Oran, Mostaganem (north-west), Jijel (east) and in Kabylia, in Béjaïa (north-east) and Tizi Ouzou (east), the day after the feast of the Eid El Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
- Break the Hirak -
With the approach of the early legislative elections of June 12, rejected by the Hirak, repression is increasing in Algeria, according to human rights organizations.
More than 70 people are currently imprisoned, prosecuted for facts related to Hirak and / or individual freedoms, according to the CNLD.
The regime seems determined to break the protest movement in order to apply its electoral "roadmap", without taking into account the demands of the street (rule of law, democratic transition, independent justice ...) and the non-participation of main opposition parties.
The Interior Ministry thus decided this week to force the organizers of the Hirak marches - a peaceful movement with no real leadership - to "declare" the demonstrations beforehand to the authorities.
"A disproportionate and unjustified repression has been exercised against the peaceful Hirak," the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) denounced on Friday in a statement.
"The LADDH reminds power of its obligations to respect human rights and demands an end to the repression and the release of all the defendants, prisoners of conscience and journalists," according to the press release.
Born in February 2019 from the massive rejection of a fifth term of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who resigned shortly after, the Hirak calls for a radical change in the political "system" in place since independence in 1962.
© 2021 AFP