Algeria make move to release two leaders of Hirak protest movement - Africa News
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Algeria make move to release two leaders of Hirak protest movement

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Algeria make move to release two leaders of Hirak protest movement

The leader of an opposition party in Algeria has said two main figures of Algeria’s Hirak protest movement will soon be freed at the president’s initiative.
The popular opposition figure Karim Tabbouand secretary-general of Algeria’s Socialist Forces Front (FFS), is serving a one-year term for an “attack on the integrity of national territory”. Samir Benlarbi has been held in preventive detention since March 7.
Sosaine Djilali said “President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has assured him that he would use his constitutional prerogative to ensure that Tabbou and Benlarbi regain their freedom,” Africa-News reports.
It is known that in the Algerian judicial system, the president has the right to pardon prisoners. In principle, that right applies only to those whose convictions are final.
Tabbou, who turned 47 on Tuesday, is one of the most prominent figures who led to the downfall last April of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after 20 years in power.
Abdennour Toumi, a Paris-based Algerian journalist, commented on the expected release, and said the move is a “pre-emptive” measure designed to deny the Hirak the ability to use activists as a “rallying call” should the resurgence of mass protests begin.
“The message the president is trying to send to the public is of a conciliatory gesture to people in Algeria and foreign audience, especially France,” he said.
Some 60 people are currently held on charges linked to the protest movement according National Committee for the Release of Detainees (CNLD).
After causing the downfall of Bouteflika last April, the Hirak movement has continued demanding an overhaul of Algeria’s governance system, which has been in place since independence from France in 1962.
With the increment of unemployment, corruption, Algerians began taking to the streets in February last year to protest, initially against Bouteflika’s plans to remain in office, and then military establishment that dominated the country for decades. Africa-News reports.

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