The reasons for the arrest are currently unknown, but this figure of Hirak, the popular protest movement, was sentenced twice in 2020 for “undermining national security” due to criticism of power.
The Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH) announced the arrest of Karim Tabbou, the figure of the pro-democracy movement Hirak in Algeria, Friday evening April 29. “We do not yet know the reasons for this new arrest,” said the human rights organization on its Facebook page.
“Stop the instrumentalization of justice, opinion is not a crime”, posted, also on Facebook, the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD), announced the arrest of the activist “at his home”.
On April 26, Mr. Tabbou published on Facebook a “tribute to Hakim Debbazi”, 55, arrested in February for publications on social networks, whose death was announced earlier this week by the LADDH. “Physically dead, the martyrs of just causes are more than alive,” says Mr. Tabbou in his publication, making the authorities responsible for his death following a cardiac arrest.
“Of course, the power remains and will remain the one and only responsible for his death”, continues Mr. Tabbou in his message. He also pays homage to Mr. Debbazi, whom he describes as “a child of the people, a modest and humble citizen, father of three children who had committed body and soul to the Hirak”. According to Mr. Tabbou, the deceased had “taken on his frail shoulders all the weight of the demands expressed in the Hirak”, of which he had become “one of the main animators in his locality” of Hadjout (west of the country).
“Let us keep the sense of his sacrifice, let us remain constant, and continue our fight for the advent of the rule of law. Rest in peace Hakim, your flight will not be in vain, ”adds Mr. Tabbou in his publication.
About 300 opponents still imprisoned
Karim Tabbou was sentenced in December 2020 to a one-year suspended prison sentence for “undermining national security”, a sentence which allowed him not to return to prison. Arrested in September 2019 in connection with this case, he had been imprisoned for nine months before being granted parole in July 2020.
In another case, Karim Tabbou was sentenced on appeal in March 2020 to one year in prison for the same count of “undermining national security”, due to a video published on his party’s Facebook page in which he criticized military interference in political affairs, a sentence he served.
Leader of a small opposition party not approved by the authorities, the Democratic and Social Union (UDS), he is one of the most popular faces of Hirak, marked by major demonstrations from February 2019 until early 2020, which led to the departure of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after twenty years in power in April 2019.
According to the CNLD, about 300 people are still imprisoned in Algeria in connection with the Hirak or the defense of individual freedoms.
