On Thursday, the Algerian presidency announced the preparation of a "special law" for nearly 300 prisoners of the security crisis in the 1990s, in preparation for their release.
The presidency said in a statement, "A special law for the laws of mercy (issued in 1995) and civil harmony (issued in 1999) has been prepared for 298 convicts."
She added that this law will be referred next week to the government meeting, to be submitted to the Council of Ministers, for study and approval, before being referred to Parliament.
Parties had previously announced that they had asked President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to issue an amnesty for prisoners, most of whom were Islamists, who were arrested during the 1990s crisis under a state of emergency, and hundreds of them were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Algeria witnessed a security and political crisis in the early 1990s after the army leadership canceled the results of parliamentary elections that Islamists won, and the crisis lasted for years, leaving 200,000 dead, according to official figures.
There is no official tally of the total number of people in prison pending cases from that era.