Algeria jails activists before Hirak protest anniversary

Algeria on Monday sentenced several Hirak protest activists to jail, days before the second anniversary of the popular uprising that led to the ouster of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Amnesty International and local rights groups condemned the prison terms, and Human Rights Watch charged that "Algerians are going to jail for their beliefs".

Several hundred protesters marched Monday against state "repression" and for the release of political prisoners, in the northeastern town of Bejaia, said the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights.

The heaviest prison sentence was handed to Chems Eddine Laalami, a 29-year-old tailor known as Brahim, who received two years and a 200,000 dinar (1,250 euro) fine.

In pre-trial detention since September, he was convicted of charges including "insulting the president" and "publication of false information" by the court in Bordj Bou Arreridj near Algiers, said defence lawyer Mounir Gharbi.

Laalami, who has previously served time behind bars over the 2019 protests, had refused to attend his hearing held by video-conference, an increasingly common practice amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We boycotted the trial because we felt there was no guarantee of a fair trial," Gharbi told AFP.

Another activist, Mouna Bouloudenine, a lecturer at the University of Annaba in Algeria's northeast, was sentenced to one year in prison, half of it suspended, on charges including "publications that could harm the national interest".

Two other Hirak activists, Ali Naib and Nasreddine Younes, received sentences of six months in prison, with three months suspended, on charges including receiving "foreign financing for acts aimed at undermining state security", said the National Committee for the Release of Detainees, CNLD.

The harsh punishments came as the Algerian government faces political, economic and public health crises, a week before the second anniversary of the February 22 start of the Hirak protests.

More than 70 people are imprisoned in the North African country in connection with the Hirak protests or in other cases relating to individual freedoms, says the CNLD.