The UN condemned the Algerian government last week for its closure of two of the country’s largest human rights organisations. The condemnation comes amid growing repression of opposition figures associated with the liberal Hirak movement.
UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor accused the Algerian government of “acts of intimidation, silencing, and repression” in response to decisions to close La Ligue Algérienne pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (LADDH) and Le Rassemblement Actions Jeunesse (RAJ). Both organisations were shut down under orders of the Algerian Ministry of the Interior for alleged subversive activities and for involvement in anti-government protests.
The Algerian government, in recent months, has been accused of cracking down on opposition campaigners, as President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is speculated to be preparing to seek another term in elections next year. In 2019, liberal human rights groups helped force then-presidential incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika out of office following a wave of strikes and protests. Fearing similar treatment, Tebboune seems to be taking proactive measures.
Earlier this month, a senior security analyst with the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime was among eight individuals arrested after allegedly helping a prominent anti-government figure flee the country.
Raouf Farah, a dual French-Algerian citizen, is charged by Algerian authorities with disseminating classified information and accepting funds to undermine public order after allegedly assisting Amira Bouraoui to escape to France via Tunisia earlier this month.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized, which specialises in the monitoring of international crime, released a statement confirming that Farah was arrested while visiting his family in Annaba. The organisation has also declared the accusations against Farah as “baseless.”
The fugitive Farah supposedly helped, Bouraoui—a longtime liberal critic of the ruling government in Algiers—broke a travel ban on leaving the country with Algeria accusing France of engineering the departure. The escape opened up a diplomatic rift, with Algeria recalling its ambassador to France, accusing the French of a “clandestine and illegal exfiltration of an Algerian national.”
As part of a wider pattern of authoritarianism, in December, prominent anti-government journalist Ihsane el-Kadi was arrested without charges by Algerian police. In Brussels, Rassemblement National MEP Thierry Mariani warned that the EU is ignoring human violations in Algeria for the sake of maintaining positive economic relations, with the Italian government signing a major gas deal with Algeria last month.
