Algeria Cracks down on Activists in Bid to Break Protest Movement

Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)
Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)
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Algeria Cracks down on Activists in Bid to Break Protest Movement

Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)
Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)

Algeria has intensified a crackdown on an anti-government protest movement, targeting social media users in a bid to stop demonstrations resuming once coronavirus restrictions end.

Weekly protests rocked the North African country for more than a year and only stopped in March due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The "Hirak" protest movement caused the downfall of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019 after 20 years in power. It has continued demanding an overhaul of Algeria's governance system, in place since independence from France in 1962.

Authorities have made about 200 arrests linked to the protests since the country's coronavirus restrictions came into effect three months ago, according to Said Salhi, vice president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights.

"The authorities have taken advantage of the lull to arrest the maximum number of activists," he said.

Protesters are being pursued for "crimes of opinion and expression connected to posts on social media, particularly Facebook", he said, with some of their homes searched and mobile phones confiscated.

Most of the authorities' actions are based on changes to the penal code that were passed in April amid the health crisis and have been denounced by human rights activists.

'Muzzling the media'

Salhi called the moves "an irresponsible attack, verging on provocation, against fundamental human rights".

On Thursday, more than 20 opposition activists were summoned to appear in seven separate hearings, mostly in trials that had been delayed due to the pandemic.

Those accused include figures in the protest movement, political activists, journalists and people accused of mocking the regime online.

"The government doesn't believe in change, it refuses to listen to the people," lawyer Mustapha Bouchachi was quoted as saying this week in French-language daily Liberte.

"In my opinion, it is making these arrests to break the Hirak," he added.

According to detainees' rights association CNLD, 60 prisoners of conscience are currently jailed.

In a sign the government might be nervous about the public mood, several academics rushed to its defense in official media this week, accusing a "neo-Hirak" of being "in the service of a foreign plan".

But press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the Algerian authorities to "stop using the justice system to muzzle the media".

"The increase in legal proceedings against Algerian journalists is extremely worrying and indicates a blatant deterioration of press freedom in Algeria," RSF director for North Africa, Souhaieb Khayati, said in a statement.

Four Algerian journalists were prosecuted or sentenced to prison this week.

Opposite impact?

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has also urged Algerian authorities to "stop using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to clamp down on press freedom".

Some of Algeria's coronavirus lockdown measures have been gradually lifted since June 7.

But gatherings, including the weekly Hirak marches, are still strictly forbidden.

Algeria has officially reported 11,385 cases and 811 deaths from the COVID-19 illness.

Provincial areas have seen sporadic mobilizations in support of detainees in recent weeks, particularly in the northeastern Kabylie region, while Algiers has remained quiet.

Defying the restrictions, protesters across the country rallied on Friday to call for the government to step down, according to NGOs and videos shared online.

The CNLD reported about a dozen arrests were made in Kabylie's Bejaia and several more in the region's other main cities of Tizi Ouzou and Bouira.

Small numbers of protesters have also been arrested elsewhere across the country, including in the northwestern city of Oran, according to the CNLD.

An anti-government coalition within the Pact for the Democratic Alternative has urged Algerians to "stay mobilized but vigilant in order to engage forcefully in the resumption of peaceful protests" when the health situation allows.

And although there were calls on social media to restart weekly protests on Friday, activists, lawyers, student associations and political parties warned of the health risks.

But instead of crushing the unprecedented, leaderless protest movement, the crackdown could have the opposite effect.

"There is a general feeling of 'hogra'" prevailing among the population, said Salhi, using an Algerian term that refers to injustice and abuse of power.

"Some are already planning to go back to the streets" despite the coronavirus risk, he said.



Syria Says Deadly Israeli Strikes a 'Blatant Violation'

This picture taken from Israel-annexed Golan Heights along the border with southern Syria shows smoke billowing above the Syrian village of Koayiah during Israeli bombardment, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
This picture taken from Israel-annexed Golan Heights along the border with southern Syria shows smoke billowing above the Syrian village of Koayiah during Israeli bombardment, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
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Syria Says Deadly Israeli Strikes a 'Blatant Violation'

This picture taken from Israel-annexed Golan Heights along the border with southern Syria shows smoke billowing above the Syrian village of Koayiah during Israeli bombardment, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
This picture taken from Israel-annexed Golan Heights along the border with southern Syria shows smoke billowing above the Syrian village of Koayiah during Israeli bombardment, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Syria on Thursday condemned deadly Israeli strikes across the country as a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty, after Israel said it struck "military capabilities".

Syrian state media said the strikes hit close to a defense research center in Damascus, among other sites, while a war monitor reported four dead in the latest Israeli attack on Syria since the opposition factions ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

"In a blatant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty, Israeli forces launched airstrikes on five locations across the country," the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

"This unjustified escalation is a deliberate attempt to destabilize Syria and exacerbate the suffering of its people."

It said the strikes resulted in the "near-total destruction" of a military airport in central Syrian province Hama, injuring dozens of civilians and soldiers.

Syria's SANA news agency reported a strike that "targeted the vicinity of the scientific research building" in Damascus's northern Barzeh neighborhood, and a raid in the vicinity of Hama, without specifying what was hit.

The Israeli military said in a statement that forces "struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian bases of Hama and T4, along with additional remaining military infrastructure sites in the area of Damascus".

Israel has said it wants to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities, whom it considers extremists.

The Syrian ministry said the strikes came as the country was trying to rebuild after 14 years of war, calling it a strategy to "normalize violence within the country".

Last month, Israel said it struck the T4 military base in central Homs province twice, targeting military capabilities at the site.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that "four people were killed and others wounded, including Syrian defense ministry personnel, in the strikes on Hama military airport".

Buffer zone

The monitor said those raids, which targeted "remaining planes, runways and towers, put the airport completely out of service," also reporting that the Damascus strikes targeted the research center in Barzeh.

In the days after Assad's fall on December 8, the Britain-based Observatory reported Israeli strikes targeting the center.

Western countries including the United States had previously struck the defense ministry facility in 2018, saying it was related to Syria's "chemical weapons infrastructure".

Also since Assad's fall, Israel has deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights and called for the complete demilitarization of southern Syria, which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan.

Authorities in south Syria's Daraa on Telegram late Wednesday said that several Israeli military vehicles entered an area in the province's west, reporting that "three (Israeli) artillery shells" targeted the area.

The Observatory has reported repeated Israeli military incursions into southern Syria beyond the demarcation line in recent months.

Last month, during a visit to Jerusalem, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Israeli strikes on Syria were "unnecessary" and threatened to worsen the situation.