The lawyers of the former Hirak figure, who has been subject to strict judicial supervision since 2020 and has just been subjected to new restrictive measures, hoped to plead on appeal this Wednesday, August 28, in Koléa, for a reduction in the sanctions imposed on their client. The hearing has been postponed to September 11.
New episode in a series of prosecutions targeting Karim Tabbou, one of the opposition figures since the outbreak of the Hirak, this popular protest movement that shook the political landscape of Algeria in 2019. The activist has several convictions and has already been under judicial supervision since May 2023, after two nights in police custody for having participated in a program on the Al-Magharibia channel, alongside the former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki.
During this debate broadcast on May 7 on the theme “Maghreb, between crises of regimes and hopes of the people”, Karim Tabbou blamed the Algerian regime for the crisis undermining the country. Since then, he has been subjected to check-ins every Monday and banned from leaving the national territory.
At the end of this summer, the axe fell, even harder. At the time of his last check-in visit, the opponent was transferred to the Koléa court, under a letter rogatory issued against him. During his appearance, his defense indicates, the judge asked him to sign an undertaking to abstain from any political or media activity.
Faced with Karim Tabbou’s refusal, the magistrate then issued an order de facto strengthening the judicial control measures. He is now “prohibited from publishing or writing by any means whatsoever, including on social networks, prohibited from leaving the territory of the jurisdiction of the Koléa court, from participating in a television program or press conference, and prohibited from any political activity.”
For his defenders – including lawyer Fetta Sadat – the observation is clear: the new restrictions are only a pretext to silence him. His lawyers speak of a “flagrant violation” and “a serious attack on the rights and freedoms of the citizen”. They also stress that “the right to defense was not respected”, pointing to a late notification of the hearing and a surprise transfer the day before the date initially scheduled. They believe that the noose continues to tighten around their client, no longer in the form of a possible arrest but of administrative harassment, incessant summons, and increasingly severe restrictions.
Since the Hirak, a man to be taken down
The appeal hearing, initially scheduled for this Wednesday, August 28, 2024, has finally been postponed to September 11. This will be a crucial step in Karim Tabbou’s legal saga. The magistrate will have to decide whether to maintain, ease, or lift the new measures imposed on the opponent. The outcome of this hearing does not seem, a priori, favorable to the political activist, as the current political climate leaves little room for a positive outcome in this type of case.
With each new twist, the former figure of the Hirak appears a little more like the man to be brought down. From his beginnings in the Front des Forces Socialistes (FFS), of which he was the first secretary from 2006 to 2011, to the founding of his political party, the Union démocratique et Sociale (UDS), he has always embodied a form of defiance towards power.
Known for his sharp speeches, he quickly established himself as one of the most popular faces of the Hirak. As part of his involvement in this protest movement, he was detained for nine months, before being granted conditional release in July 2020. In December of the same year, he was sentenced on appeal to a one-year suspended sentence. A sentence that allowed him to avoid returning to prison. But since May 2023, the opponent, who celebrated his 51st birthday in June, has once again been subject to strict judicial control.
