As the country prepares to hold its legislative elections on Saturday, Algerian opponent Karim Tabbou, the central figure of Hirak, and the director of a radio station close to this pro-democracy movement were arrested on Thursday, according to their entourage.
He is one of the most popular faces of the Hirak. The opponent Karim Tabbou, as well as the director of a radio station close to this pro-democracy movement, were arrested on the eve of the legislative elections, we learned Thursday evening from their entourage.
“Arrest of #Karim_Tabbou near his home,” his brother Djafar wrote on his Facebook page.
The director of the Algerian station Radio M and the Maghreb Emergent news site, Ihsane El-Kadi, was also arrested, the Casbah Tribune news site reported.
Karim Tabbou, 47, was released on April 29 under judicial supervision after an altercation with Bouzid Lazhari, the president of the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH), an official body.
Imprisoned from September 2019 to July 2020, Karim Tabbou is a well-known face of the anti-regime protest, Hirak, launched in February 2019.
As for Ihsane El-Kadi, he was placed under judicial supervision on May 18. He is accused of “disseminating false information capable of undermining national unity”, “disrupting the elections” and “reopening the dossier of the national tragedy” of the 1990s.
This last charge refers to the Charter for Peace and Reconciliation, supposed to turn the page on the civil war of the “black decade” (1992-2002). Under judicial review, the two men are prohibited from speaking to the press.
In addition, the independent journalist Khaled Drareni, a symbol of the fight for press freedom in Algeria, had been unreachable for several hours late Thursday evening, according to the information site Casbah Tribune, of which he is the director. According to Saïd Salhi, vice-president of the defense of human rights (LADDH), he was also arrested. Sentenced to a heavy prison sentence but released on bail, he is awaiting a new trial.
Chain arrests
These arrests take place 48 hours before the early legislative elections supposed to bring new legitimacy to the regime but rejected by the protest movement Hirak and part of the opposition, against a background of generalized repression.
They come as a group of French journalists who have been in Algiers since Wednesday to cover Saturday’s poll.
As the election deadline approaches, the regime has stepped up arrests and legal proceedings against and legal proceedings targeting political opponents, Iraqi activists, lawyers, and independent journalists.
Some 222 people are currently imprisoned for acts related to Hirak and/or individual freedoms, according to the National Committee for the Release of Prisoners (CNLD), a support association.
