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Spain: Authorities Must Not Deport Asylum Seeker Who Fled Algeria

Demonstrators hold the flag during anti-government protests in Algiers, Algeria (Reuters)
Demonstrators hold the flag during anti-government protests in Algiers, Algeria (Reuters)
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Spain: Authorities Must Not Deport Asylum Seeker Who Fled Algeria

Demonstrators hold the flag during anti-government protests in Algiers, Algeria (Reuters)
Demonstrators hold the flag during anti-government protests in Algiers, Algeria (Reuters)

The Spanish government is under increasing pressure and appeals to cancel its decision to deport the former Algerian soldier, M.B., and hand him over to the national authorities.

M.B. is an Algerian citizen and a former military official who fled the country in September 2019, after he was accused of participating in acts of sabotage during the Hirak popular movement that ousted former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

On 7 January 2021, the Algerian judiciary sentenced the 32-year-old former soldier in absentia to ten years for “spreading false information.”

The Algerian public prosecutor also issued an international arrest warrant against him and requested his extradition from Spain, where he had applied for political asylum.

The Spanish authorities had arrested him in Zaragoza and charged him with “carrying out activities that threaten national security and would undermine relations with a friendly country." They also accused him of communicating with the Rashad movement.

The Algerian defendant lawyer says that a bleak and ambiguous future awaits his client if he is handed over to the Algerian authorities for sharing videos online that expose corruption within the military.

Amnesty International is leading the campaign to defend M.B. and demand his political asylum, saying the Spanish authorities are deeply aware of the grim fate if they deport him.

Spanish authorities extradited in the summer of 2021 another former military official and asylum-seeker who had sought refuge in Spain in November 2018 after publicly accusing the Algerian military of corruption.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.