Algeria is nothing more than a sigh. A memory tearing itself away from him. The longing for his beloved country is too strong, overwhelming, almost suffocating. Exile is not about feelings: the young man had to learn to tame the lack of friends, family and the streets of Algiers. loneliness too. “I live in total isolation,” Zakaria Hannache repeats in his musical voice. At least in prison we are with people. »
“Zaki”, as we like to call him, has been hiding in Tunis since November 14, 2022, where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) granted him political refugee status. Because he was one of the bright faces of Hirak – that peaceful popular movement that shook Algeria from February 22, 2019 and put an end to the rule of Abdelaziz Bouteflika – this 35-year-old activist has to hide far in this capital from Algiers. A few days ago he changed hiding places for the eleventh time. And in one of them, Le Monde was able to meet him for a long time.
For three months he feared that he would be “kidnapped by the Algerian services” and thrown in prison again. “He lives with this sword of Damocles on his head,” testifies Ahmed Messedi, his Tunisian lawyer. To remove ? In Tunis? Is it likely? “There is a precedent,” recalls “Zaki”: He is thinking of Slimane Bouhafs, 55, a sympathizer of the Kabylia Self-Determination Movement (MAK), which the Algerian regime has now classified as a terrorist organization.
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This political refugee, recognized as such by the Tunisian representation of UNHCR and a convert to Christianity, was kidnapped by strangers from his small apartment in the heart of Tunis on August 25, 2021 and forcibly returned to Algeria. Mr Bouhafs is currently being held in Koléa and is facing 10 criminal charges, according to his family. Another MAK activist – who Le Monde was able to speak to – claims to have been nearly kidnapped by Algerians on January 25, 2022 on a street in Tunis. “The risk of being caught is there,” emphasizes Zakaria Hannache.
His fear is so great that the other night he spent hours with his back against the front door. “I thought the police were coming to arrest me. In fact, the door slammed because of the wind, he says, repeating the scene. So I said to myself, “Stop, calm down. If you panic, you’ll do something stupid.” “The constant “stress” he feels even led him to the emergency room a few days ago: the abdominal pain had become unbearable.
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