Saturday April 10, 2021, the 23 inmates are on the 4th day of the hunger strike at El Harrach prison which began …
The arrests took place as Hirak militants tried to march through the center of the Algerian capital . After a year of interruption, pandemic obliges, the Hirakists have taken to the streets again since February 22, date of the second anniversary of the popular uprising, to demand the dismantling of the “system” in place since the independence of Algeria in 1962.
They usually demonstrate every Tuesday, for students, and Friday, the emblematic day of the protest. Small groups of activists also try to march on Saturdays, during marches that are often quickly nipped in the bud by the police. Several activists were arrested again this Saturday in Algiers, in particular in the Casbah (old town) and in the popular district of Bab El Oued, the Hirak bastion, according to the CNLD which does not specify the number.
This association has identified around sixty people associated with Hirak and now behind bars. In February, around 40 prisoners of conscience were released after a pardon by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The Hirak is today accused by the government of being infiltrated by Islamist activists, heirs of the Islamic Salvation Front (dissolved in 1992), who would seek to lead the protest movement into violent action. In its latest annual report published on Wednesday, Amnesty International denounced the fact that “again this year the authorities have arrested and prosecuted peaceful protesters, journalists, activists and citizens who do not ‘had only peacefully exercised their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly ”.
American diplomacy has also pinned Algeria, in its report on the situation of human rights in the world, denouncing in particular the arbitrary detention of political prisoners, the lack of judicial independence and the restrictions on freedom of expression. and the press.
