Algeria issues ‘terrorism’ warrants against exiled activists

An Algerian court has issued arrest warrants against outspoken exiled activists, accusing influencers and an Islamist leader, of seeking to turn the country’s long-standing protest movement into violence.

The arrest warrants issued on Sunday come as Algerian anti-government protesters, the Hirak movement, step up weekly rallies ahead of the June elections.

The warrants target former diplomat Mohamed Larbi Zeitout, blogger Amir Boukhors, who writes under the name “Amir Dz”, and journalist Hichem Aboud.

Zeitout, 57, who founded the banned Islamist movement Rachad in 2007, lives in exile in Britain.

Rachad is accused of bringing together former Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) activists to infiltrate the pro-democracy protest movement Hirak and lead it to violence.

Journalist Hichem Aboud in May 2013 in Algiers. By FAROUK BATICHE (AFP / File)

Zeitout is wanted for “managing and financing a terrorist group,” as well as forgery and money laundering, according to the official APS news agency.

Boukhors, 38, has released several videos criticizing the government, while Aboud, 65, allegedly a former member of the Algerian secret service, was sentenced last year in absentia to seven years in prison.

Boukhors and Aboud are both based in France and face charges of belonging to a “terrorist group targeting state security” as well as money laundering, the statement said, without mentioning the name of the group.

An arrest warrant has also been issued for a fourth man, named Abdellah Mohammed, on charges similar to those of Boukhors and Aboud.

Mohamed is less well known, although he has created a YouTube channel. Former gendarme and member of Rachad, he lives in Spain, according to videos posted on social networks.

A fourth man, Ahmed Mansouri, a former Islamist activist and former FIS member arrested last month, has been ordered to be held in pre-trial detention.

According to the statement, “technical investigations” had shown that Mansouri, Aboud, Boukhors and Abdelleh were part of a plan to exploit the protesters of the Hirak to bring it out of its “peaceful character”.

Hirak protesters began demonstrating in February 2019 against the candidacy of then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a fifth term.

Recently, he organized demonstrations calling for a fundamental overhaul of the system in power since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962.

Under a bill proposed in early March, the government plans to strip Algerians who participate abroad in “acts prejudicial to the interests of the State” of their Algerian nationality.