Algeria Sentences MAK Leader to 20 Years in Prison

Leader of Kabylia Self-Determination Movement (MAK), Ferhat Mehenni
Leader of Kabylia Self-Determination Movement (MAK), Ferhat Mehenni
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Algeria Sentences MAK Leader to 20 Years in Prison

Leader of Kabylia Self-Determination Movement (MAK), Ferhat Mehenni
Leader of Kabylia Self-Determination Movement (MAK), Ferhat Mehenni

A criminal court in the Algerian capital on Wednesday sentenced in absentia the leader of Kabylia Self-Determination Movement (MAK), Ferhat Mehenni, and six other people to 20 years in prison on charges of “committing terrorist and subversive acts targeting the security of the state and national unity.”
The rulings included 20 other defendants, who stood before the judges and were questioned about their crimes.
The court sought penalties for the group of defendants ranging from three to 10 years. They were accused of trading “considerable quantities of weapons and spreading ideas that target the security of the state.”
Algeria has a “strict” criminal law in penalties against defendants classified as “fugitives.”
Four other defendants in the case were acquitted for lack of evidence.
Founded 20 years ago, MAK is a group advocating for self-determination for Algeria's Amazigh Kabylia region, in the east of the country.
In his defense, a representative of the public prosecutor accused the defendants of participating in organizations and groups engaged in terrorist and subversive activities.
He said they “used information and communication technologies to recruit people for the benefit of a terrorist organization”.
The court representative also accused them of receiving funds from foreign parties to conduct acts targeting the security of the state and of “plotting with the Zionist entity.”
In return, the defense team has denied all the charges and said there is a lack of evidence against the defendants. The team demanded that the court brings the weapons and ammunition that security services claim they had seized.
In May 2021, the Algerian regime designated MAK a “terrorist group”.
Mehenni, 72, and the six other defendants live in France, where they benefit from a political asylum status.
In 2021, the Algerian judiciary issued an international arrest warrant for the MAK leader and accused him of being involved in the significant wildfires that affected the country and several other cases.
Mehenni, a famous singer, founded the movement in 2001 following bloody clashes between Algerian security forces and residents from the Kbaylia region after a young man was killed by a police officer.
The clashes left 170 dead and tens of injuries.
In video footage that was shared online, Mehenni denied all the accusations made against him.
In 2010, the movement declared the establishment of a temporary government led by Mehenni for the Kabylia region in Paris.

 

 



Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Israeli forces pounded southern Lebanon and the outskirts of the capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least five medics, and ground troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south.

Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy will lead to an imminent ceasefire.

US mediator Amos Hochstein said this week in Beirut that a truce was "within our grasp". He travelled on to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington, the news outlet Axios said.

His trip was aimed at ending more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon's southern border, which escalated when Israel ramped up its strikes in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on Oct. 1.

Israeli troops have fought Hezbollah in a strip of towns along the border and this week pushed deeper to the edges of Khiyam, a town some six km (four miles) from the border.

Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday. Lebanese security sources told Reuters Israeli troops had also advanced in a string of villages to the west. They said Israel was most likely trying to isolate Khiyam before attacking the town.

Four Italian soldiers were lightly injured after two rockets exploded at a UNIFIL peacekeeping force base in southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for UNIFIL said on Friday.

Italian sources said an investigation was under way. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian media that Hezbollah might be responsible for the attack.

Israeli strikes on two other villages in southern Lebanon killed five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The more than 3,500 people killed by Israeli strikes over the last year include more than 200 medics, the health ministry said.

EVACUATION WARNINGS AND STRIKES

Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Israel's north because of rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which began firing across the border in support of Hamas at the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Israel also mounted more strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a once densely populated stronghold of Hezbollah.

Abeer Darwich, a resident of a building that was hit in Beirut southern suburbs on Friday, had to leave her apartment immediately after an evacuation warning from Israel's military.

She stood watching while an Israeli strike pounded the high rise building into dust.

"Do you know that most of the apartments' owners took credit to buy those houses? Life savings are gone, memories and safety ... which Israel decided to steal from us," Darwich said .

Evacuation orders were issued on X for several buildings in the area on Friday. Reuters footage showed one of the strikes appearing to pierce the center of a multi-storey building, which toppled in a cloud of smoke.