Complaint Sent to UN Against Detention of Algerian Political Figure

Protesters hold flags during an anti-government demonstration in Algiers, Algeria January 24, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
Protesters hold flags during an anti-government demonstration in Algiers, Algeria January 24, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
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Complaint Sent to UN Against Detention of Algerian Political Figure

Protesters hold flags during an anti-government demonstration in Algiers, Algeria January 24, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
Protesters hold flags during an anti-government demonstration in Algiers, Algeria January 24, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina

An Algerian lawyer has announced filing a complaint to the United Nations on the “arbitrary detention” of Algerian political activist Karim Tabbou.

The lawyer, who resides in Canada, said he filed the complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to protest against the continued imprisonment of Head of the Democratic and Socialist Union party.

On March 24, a court of appeals sentenced Tabbou for a year in prison on charges of “weakening army morale” in 2019 after criticizing the then army chief, Ahmed Gaed Salah, who died suddenly of a heart attack in late December

His lawyer said he had been unable to defend himself after suffering a medical problem, which he later revealed to be a stroke.

He had become the most prominent figure in the Hirak protest movement, which emerged in February 2019, shaking Algeria’s deeply entrenched political establishment with weekly mass protests that forced longtime leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign.

The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has previously slammed Algeria for detaining political activists, in some cases that date back to the 1990s.

In this context, the Appeal Court in the capital, Algiers, adjourned Tuesday the verdict in the case of journalist and political activist Fodil Boumala, who was accused of “weakening army morale.”

An Algiers court has acquitted him in early March, but the public prosecution has appealed the verdict.

The National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners announced Tuesday the postponement of the trial of eight protesters to an unspecified date.

This step comes in light of the Ministry of Justice’s decision to adjourn all trials in line with the measures taken by the state to face the coronavirus outbreak.



RSF Leader: Armed Groups Responsible for Escalation in Sudan's El Fasher

Commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohammed Hamdan Daglo in southern Darfur. (AFP file photo)
Commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohammed Hamdan Daglo in southern Darfur. (AFP file photo)
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RSF Leader: Armed Groups Responsible for Escalation in Sudan's El Fasher

Commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohammed Hamdan Daglo in southern Darfur. (AFP file photo)
Commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohammed Hamdan Daglo in southern Darfur. (AFP file photo)

Commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti, slammed on Sunday the “popular resistance,” saying they were a cover for the brigades of the ousted regime and whose members were from the army and other security forces.

In a voice recording on Eid al-Adha, he congratulated the Sudanese people on the occasion, saying their country was “going through extraordinary circumstances because of the war that was sparked by the Islamist movement with the help of the army command.”

This was Daglo’s first address to the public in two months.

“We are pained by the conditions our citizens are going through and we are working on easing their suffering to achieve peace and stability and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid,” he went on to say.

On the situation in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, Daglo blamed the escalation there on armed factions “that have abandoned neutrality and chosen to side with their slaughterer.”

“They attacked our forces, so we had no choice but to defend ourselves,” he stressed.

He said the development in Wad al-Noura in al-Jazirah state was a military battle between the RSF, army, Islamist movement brigades and the security agency. He declared that the RSF succeeded in deciding the battle in its favor.

Clashes in the rural town have left over 100 people dead and injured.

Daglo stressed the importance of opening humanitarian corridors to deliver aid to the people. “We reject the practices committed by the gang in Port Sudan,” he added, in reference to the army.

He blamed the military for impeding the delivery of aid throughout Sudan, accusing it of war crimes.