Since the beginning of the week, around twenty demonstrators against the Algerian power have been sentenced to prison terms, according to human rights organizations. In recent weeks, some 2,000 Hirakis have been arrested. The repression that illustrates the regime’s new turn of the screw, which wants to put an end to the dispute, comments Observ’Algérie.
The 117th Friday of Hirak [May 14] has been an unprecedented crackdown. Hundreds of Algerians in several wilayas [Algerian local authorities] were arrested and several marches violently dispersed. The Hirakists had a particularly difficult Friday. The police proceeded from the morning to arrests which targeted all categories of society. [Born in reaction to Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s fifth term in February 2019, the Hirak is an unprecedented protest movement against Algerian power.]
Indeed, party leaders, journalists, lawyers, university professors, women, the elderly, minors, and the physically disabled were arrested. They are more than 800, including 300 only in Algiers, to have been taken to the various police stations. Some were released late at night, while others were taken into police custody [in total, around 2,000 people were arrested, around 100 were taken into custody and around 20 were sentenced to death. prison closes, according to human rights organizations].
The opposition in the viewfinder
Thus, the Hirakists were greeted by an important security system, in particular by the anti-riot forces. Several Algerian cities found themselves crisscrossed by blue trucks parked in the main boulevards. The most reckless hirakists were either clubbed or arrested, the climate was miserable. Journalists are prohibited from doing their job.
Among those arrested are the president of the [opposition party] RCD, Mohcine Belabbas, as well as Athmane Mazouz, national secretary in charge of communication within the same party. Fethi Ghares, spokesperson for the MDS [another left-wing opposition party], and the former FFS [oldest opposition party, member of the Socialist International], Ali Laskri, were also arrested.
“End” with the Hirak
The violent impediment of these marches thus confirms the intentions of the authorities after the press release from the Ministry of the Interior. This repressive and liberticidal approach has been denounced by political activists as well as by civil society organizations. The government has thus chosen to put an end to the Hirak and intends to put all the means on its side to organize the legislative elections of June 12.
For their part, the hirakists assure that they will not stop marching and asking for a real change. They say they are determined to continue the struggle by emphasizing the need to maintain the pacifism which has always characterized this popular revolt.
