Algerian security forces prevented students from protesting on Tuesday, May 4, as they do every Tuesday in Algiers. A week ago, the same student march was prevented for the first time since the resumption at the end of February of the marches of the Hirak pro-democracy movement.
For the second week in a row, Algerian police prevented students from protesting on Tuesday in Algiers, arresting dozens of people before they could start marching, according to an AFP journalist.
The police had been deployed since the beginning of the morning in large numbers in the center of the capital and in the neighboring streets.
A week ago, the police had already prevented students from protesting as they do every Tuesday in Algiers, a first since the resumption at the end of February of the marches of the Hirak pro-democracy movement. They had also made arrests.
Major deployment of security forces in Algiers
The demonstrators arrested last Tuesday were released after being forced to sign a document at the police station in which they agreed to no longer participate in the weekly marches, on pain of being imprisoned in the event of a repeat offense, according to Saïd Salhi, vice-president. of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH).
According to the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), more than 70 people are currently imprisoned, prosecuted for acts related to Hirak and/or individual freedoms.
Born in February 2019 from the massive rejection of the fifth term of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Hirak calls for a radical change in the political “system” in place since independence in 1962.
