ALGIERS: Around 8 Algerian activists from pro-democracy protests that toppled the country’s last president have been placed in pre-trial custody while 6 others were freed under judicial supervision, one of their lawyers announced on Friday. They were arrested between July 8 and 15 in Bejaia, some 220 kilometers east of the capital Algiers.
Mira Mokhnache, a human rights defender, along with 7 other activists were placed in pre-trial custody on Thursday by an investigating judge at the Sidi M’Hamed court in downtown Algiers, lawyer Fetta Sadat said.
The protest movement, known as Hirak, broke out in February 2019 and compelled longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit 60 days later. The protest continued to press for reforms, but it waned during the Covid epidemic.
The National Committee for the Release of Detainees (CNLD) stated that among 8 convicted was a man who was freed from jail last month following three years of jail over relations to the pro-democracy protests.
A 16-year-old whistleblower who documented Algerian political jails on his social media page was among those freed under judicial supervision, Sadat said. Local media reported that the group was being prosecuted under a 2021 law relating to “terrorism.”
Last year, a UN expert called for the repeal of the article that “broadened the definition of terrorism,” and urged Algerian government to pardon people convicted or arrested over their involvement in the pro-democracy protests.
