Algeria: presidential pardon for a hundred militant prisoners of Hirak
“Hirak” demonstrators demand the release of prisoners of the protest movement, in Algiers, December 27, 2019. REUTERS / Ramzi Boudina
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In Algeria, more than 100 detainees imprisoned after Hirak protests will be released despite their convictions.
The pardon comes from President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, formalized by the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday in a statement.
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In Algeria, the releases of young detainees from Hirak have started. They are students, Hirak coordinators or simple demonstrators .... Forty-six detainees - 44 men and 2 women - have been released since the president's announcements yesterday. Most were arrested during the protests of May and June, just before the last legislative elections, and have already spent between two and three months in detention.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the courts to "
let their families join them
" despite their sentences.
The announcement was made official by the Ministry of Justice.
It concerns 101 people.
Only 30 of them had already been tried and sentenced for immediate appearance, often to less than a year in prison.
The other 71 are still awaiting trial.
Should we see a change of course in the
repressive policy of the authorities
?
Or are these releases a sham, as Hirak militants think?
Break in trust
Officially, these presidential releases and pardons were decided
as part of the celebrations for the 59th anniversary
of independence, on July 5.
But for the political activist Hakim Addad, founder of the Youth Action Rally, they do not obscure the reality of the regime.
"
Repression is part of the strategy chosen by the Algerian authorities, and it is not because he has released 101 people that, for now at least, we can say that this strategy of repression has changed and that 'it's more about reaching out or listening to peaceful and popular demands.
"
For the activist, if these releases represent a relief, they are not an end in themselves, because “
unfortunately, there remain at least 200 political prisoners or of opinion in the prisons in Algeria.
And among the 101 people released, 71 are provisionally released and will still be awaiting trial for months!
"
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To read also: Algeria: does the regime want to extinguish the Hirak?
For the political scientist specializing in Algeria at the International Crisis Group, Michael Ayari, the rupture between the state and the citizens is still very much present despite the government's attempts to open up.
When we discuss with Algerians, it's a bit like the myth of the eternal return, a power that never ceases to end, to use the same recipes.
There have nevertheless been some efforts [...] but no profound changes [...] The relationship between the State and the citizen does not change in the eyes of the majority of Algerians
Michael Ayari
Victor Mauriat
Before these releases and according to the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), more than 300 people were in prison for acts related to Hirak or individual freedoms.
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Algeria
Abdelmadjid Tebboune