Human rights organizations call for the release of “prisoners of conscience” in Algeria

Algerian and international human rights associations, including the International Federation for Human Rights and the International Organization Against Torture, launched an appeal on Thursday to the Algerian authorities to “release unjustly detained detainees.” » and “open spaces for civil society”.

So far, “more than 200 people are imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression and other fundamental rights”, such as freedom of association and peaceful assembly, said around twenty organizations , including Algerian NGOs such as Innovation and the National Committee for the Release of Detainees, as well as the international organization “MENA Rights”.

The organizations stressed that among the “prisoners of conscience” there are “personalities” of the protest movement which began five years ago and contributed to the fall of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019 (who died in September 2021).

The organizations mentioned certain figures such as Ibrahim Laâlami, a young tailor in his thirties, and the poet Mohamed Tajdid, of the same age, who “have spent almost 60 months in prison since 2019, as well as the environmental activist Mohamed Qasimi (48 years old) imprisoned since June 2020 and journalist Ehsan El Kadhi, aged 64 and sentenced to seven years in prison.