More than a month after his arrest and imprisonment for crimes of opinion in Algeria, Canadian national Lazhar Zouaïmia was released on Wednesday morning from El-Harrach prison by the country’s judicial authorities.
A provisional release, however, for this active activist of Hirak, the Algerian pro-democracy movement, who is still subject to a ban on leaving the country, a measure preventing him from finding his wife and daughter in Montreal.
An expert technician at Hydro-Quebec, Lazhar Zouaïmia was arrested on February 22 at Mohamed Boudiaf airport in Constantine as he was preparing to return to Quebec after visiting his family for a few days. Mr. Zouaïmia is a critical voice of the Algerian regime from Montreal, where he regularly participates in community-orchestrated pro-democracy protests. He is also a human rights activist with Amnesty International.
The man is accused by Algiers of “praising terrorist acts through media and communication technology” and of “supporting and supporting a terrorist group”. The autocratic regime in place has intensified its repression against its political opponents for several weeks.
These heavily loaded formulations in Algeria – the country was hit by the violence of terrorism during the “black decade” at the end of the 1990s – are used on purpose by the military in power in this country to crush any movement of popular protest. . Since last June, a reform of the Algerian Penal Code has allowed the government of Abdelmadjid Tebboune to assimilate to “terrorism” and “sabotage” any call to “change the system of governance by unconventional means”.
Since his arrest, Mr. Zouaïmia has not been able to meet with representatives of Canadian consular affairs. A visit requested by the embassy was refused by Algerian authorities earlier this week, according to information obtained by Le Devoir .
“After 40 days, it was the first time I was able to speak to him on Wednesday,” said his wife, Fatima Benzerara, a mathematics teacher in a Montreal school, in an interview. “He will live with his family while awaiting his trial. But for the moment, we don’t know anything more about the nature of this release, the conditions, or the rest of the procedures that await it. »
Cycle of repression
The ongoing crackdown on Hirak activists has resulted in the arrest of more than 300 Algerians in recent months, as the movement celebrated its third anniversary a month ago.
The government of Abdelmadjid Tebboune no longer hesitates to attack the opposition expressed by Algerians established abroad and citizens of another country. In addition to Lazhar Zouaïmia, a Belgian national, Rachid Touam, and a French national, Amar Zebar, were arrested at the port of Algiers because of their involvement, too, in the so-called “smiles” revolution.
Amnesty International has strongly denounced this new round of repression in Algeria, which has led to the “temporary” suspension of the Socialist Workers’ Party (PST), an opposition party supporting Hirak, but also to the condemnation of Fethi Ghares, coordinator of the Democratic and Social Movement (MDS), an institution in the Algerian political landscape.
