Karim Tabbou, one of Hirak’s most famous personalities, after his release from Kolea prison near Tipasa (Algeria) on July 2, 2020. RYAD KRAMDI / AFP
The Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH) announced on Friday evening 29. “We do not yet know the reasons for this renewed arrest,” the human rights organization said on its Facebook page.
“Stop the instrumentalization of the judiciary, opinion is not a crime,” the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD) also posted on Facebook, announcing the arrest of the activist “at his home.”
On April 26, Mr Tabbou posted on Facebook a “tribute to Hakim Debbazi,” 55, who was arrested in February for postings on social media and whose death was announced by LADDH earlier this week. “Physically dead, the martyrs of the just cause are more than alive,” Mr Tabbou says in his release, blaming authorities for his death from cardiac arrest.
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“Of course, power remains and will remain solely responsible for his death,” Mr. Tabbou continues in his message. He also pays tribute to Mr. Debbazi, whom he describes as “a child of the people, a humble and humble citizen, father of three, devoted heart and soul to Hirak”. According to Mr. Tabbou, the deceased had “taken upon his frail shoulders the full weight of the demands of the Hirak” by which he had become “one of the most important leaders in his area” of Hadjout (in the west of the country). .
“Let’s keep the sense of his sacrifice, let’s stand firm and continue our fight for the establishment of the rule of law. Rest in peace Hakim, your fight will not be in vain,” adds Mr. Tabbou in his publication.
About 300 opponents still imprisoned
Karim Tabbou was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence in December 2020 for “undermining national security”, which denied him a return to prison. Arrested in September 2019 in connection with that case, he was jailed for nine months before being paroled in July 2020.
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In another case, in March 2020, Karim Tabbou was sentenced on appeal to one year in prison for “undermining national security” for a video posted on his party’s Facebook page in which he criticized military interference in political affairs, including: a sentence he has served.
As leader of a small opposition party unrecognized by the authorities, the Democratic and Social Union (UDS), he is one of the most popular faces of Hirak, which was marked by large demonstrations from February 2019 to early 2020 that led to the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after twenty years in power in April 2019.
According to the CNLD, about 300 people are still being held in Algeria in connection with the hirak, or defense of individual liberties.
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