Journalist Mohamed Mouloudj has been released. He was accused of belonging to the MAK, a Kabyle autonomist movement qualified as a terrorist by Algiers. The journalist was released after his trial. Dozens of other people, supporting the Hirak, accused of belonging to a “terrorist” organization are still awaiting trial.
Mohamed Mouloudj, a journalist with the French-language daily Liberté, which ceased publication in April, was sentenced overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday to two years in prison, including one year, said the National Committee for the Release of Detainees ( CNLD).
This sentence having been covered by his pre-trial detention, which lasted more than 13 months, the court of Dar El Beida, in the eastern suburbs of Algiers, ordered his immediate release, according to this source.
More than 50 “prisoners of conscience” awaiting trial
Six other people, tried in the same case and in detention since September 2021, were also released. They were all acquitted of the charge of belonging to a terrorist organization, according to one of the defense lawyers, Me Hakim Saheb.
The prosecution had requested 10 years in prison against the journalist and between 12 and 15 years in prison against his co-defendants, said the CNLD. Mohamed Mouloudj was arrested on September 13, 2021, along with 15 other people, alleged members of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), a separatist group considered a terrorist by the authorities.
The arrests were made in connection with investigations into forest fires that occurred in August 2021 in Kabylie. Before his arrest, the journalist had had trouble with the security services, which had deprived him of his passport for several months. He had also been arrested several times before being released, according to his ex-colleagues.
In addition, human rights activist El Hadi Lassouli, involved in Hirak, a peaceful popular protest movement that took place between February 2019 and April 2021, was released Tuesday evening after approximately 16 months of detention, according to the CNLD.
He was acquitted by the court of Dar El Beida before which he appeared, in particular for “occult financing” humanitarian actions he carried out in favor of Hirak detainees, according to local media.
Ten other people, prosecuted in the same case, were released after being acquitted or after having served their full one-year prison sentence, the CNLD said. Around fifty prisoners of conscience are still awaiting trial. Do these releases attest to a desire for appeasement on the part of the Algerian political power? Is this the result of pressure from the UN Human Rights Council, which Algeria has just joined?
