Algerian Former PM Ouyahia Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail

Former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia. (AFP)
Former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia. (AFP)
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Algerian Former PM Ouyahia Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail

Former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia. (AFP)
Former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia. (AFP)

An Algerian court sentenced on Monday former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia to seven years in jail over corruption charges.

Ouyahia served as premier during the term of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The court also sentenced former ministers of Public Works, Amar Ghoul and Abdelghani Zaalane to three years in prison in the same case.

Separately, a supporter of Algeria's Hirak protest movement was sentenced to three years in jail Monday for satirical social media posts mocking the government, sparking condemnation from rights groups.

Walid Kechida, 25, was accused of insulting President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and "offending the precepts" of Islam in internet memes and other online posts, said Kaci Tansaout, from the CNLD prisoners' rights group.

"Walid Kechida is sadly sentenced to three years in prison with a fine," Tansaout said, adding that lawyers would appeal.

"We had expected his release" from jail, he added, according to AFP.

Lawyer Moumen Chadi confirmed the sentence.

Human Rights Watch and the Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH) deplored the sentence.

"Algeria's government continues its vengeance against #Hirak activists," said Ahmed Benchemsi, HRW's advocacy and communications director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The public prosecutor in Algeria's northeastern Setif province had called for a five-year sentence, and Kechida has already spent eight months in detention awaiting trial.

Algerian authorities have arrested and prosecuted several activists in a bid to neutralize the Hirak protest movement.

Kechida, who administered the "Hirak Memes" Facebook page, is the latest Algerian targeted by authorities this year in a crackdown against freedom of expression.

Tebboune last week signed Algeria's new constitution into law, a change the government hopes will turn the page on the long-running protest movement.

The movement first launched vast street demonstrations in early 2019 to oppose then-president Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in office.

Bouteflika resigned in April that year, but protesters kept up the pressure, demanding a full overhaul of the ruling system in place since the North African nation's 1962 independence from France.

However, social distancing necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic meant that protesters had to halt their street rallies early last year.

A November referendum to approve the constitutional changes received the backing of less than 15 percent of the electorate, in a vote overshadowed by the pandemic and Hirak calls for a boycott.



Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
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Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.

Heavy Israeli airstrikes killed 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, a security source in Lebanon said, in what Israel said was a warning to the Iran-backed group against trying to re-establish itself.

The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses it used to store weapons in the Bekaa Valley region of eastern Lebanon.

The airstrikes were the deadliest on the area since a US-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel last November. Bachir Khodr, governor of the Bekaa region, said seven of the dead were Syrian nationals.

Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in last year's conflict, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday's strikes sent a "clear message" to Hezbollah, accusing it of planning to rebuild the capability to raid Israel through the elite Radwan force, Reuters reported.

Israel "will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding", he said. He added that strikes were also a message to the Lebanese government, saying it was responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate public response from Hezbollah or from the Lebanese government to the latest Israeli strikes.

The United States has submitted a proposal to the Lebanese government aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament within four months in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from positions they still hold in south Lebanon.

Under the terms of the ceasefire brokered by the US and France, Lebanon's armed forces were to confiscate "all unauthorized arms", beginning in the area south of the Litani River - the zone closest to Israel.