Algeria releases four protest leaders

Algeria provisionally released a key protest movement leader, Karim Tabbou, and three other jailed activists ahead of the country’s independence day.

Tabbou, 47, is one of the most prominent if not best-known figure of ‘Hirak’ – a movement that forced the downfall last April of longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

He walked out of Kolea jail, west of Algiers in the afternoon, an AFP correspondent said.

He was accomapnied by activists Amira Bouraoui and Samir Benlarbi who were seen leaving the same prison after also being granted provisional releases.

Bouraoui embraced her family, while her two companions draped her with Algerian flags. A small crowd shouted pro-Hirak slogans.

“Our happiness is not complete. In leaving, I left two brothers in prison,” Benlarbi said briefly.

Among the best known ‘Hirak’ figures behind bars is journalist Khaled Drareni, head of the information website Casbah Tribune and correspondent for French television channel Tv5Monde.

His request for release was rejected.

A fourth activist Slimane Hamitouche “has already gone home”, said one of his lawyers, Abderahmane Salah.

Tabbou, jailed in September 2019, was serving a one-year sentence for an “attack on the integrity of national territory”.

He also faces a charge of “damaging the morale of the army”, in a trial which has been postponed to Sept 14.

Amnesty International, which lobbied for Tabbou’s release, welcomed the “good news” and called for the ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of all other ‘prisoners of opinion’ held in Algeria. — AFP