Arrest of journalists and writer

EXPRESSION

Arrests of journalists

• On 29th December 2024, journalist Abdelwakil Blamm was once again arrested outside his home in Cheraga and taken into custody at a Gendarmerie Nationale police station. He spent several days in pre-trial detention without his family being able to contact him. On 5th January 2025, the state prosecutor at the Chéraga court announced that Blamm was detained on charges of “participating in a terrorist organisation and spreading false news aimed at undermining public security and the integrity of national unity” and that these accusations were “based on information received by the regional judicial investigation department of the General Directorate of Internal Security that a person was spreading false and malicious news on his personal Facebook page”. Blamm had already been arrested the previous week, only to be released a few hours later after having his telephone confiscated. This arrest took place in the context of a crackdown on a number of political activists who express a critical view of the regime, including those who adopted the social media hashtag ‘Manich Rady’, which refers to dissatisfaction with the general situation in the country. Blamm is known for his commitment to the fight for democratic change and was a founder of the civilian-led Barakat movement that emerged in opposition to former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s authoritarian regime.

• On 30th December 2024, journalist Mustapha Bendjama was arrested by plain-clothes officers in the centre of Annaba. He was subsequently taken into custody at a National Gendarmerie brigade in this major city in eastern Algeria. On 2nd January 2025, Bendjama was released without charge after authorities questioned him about his Facebook posts. He was however placed under judicial control and banned from leaving the country.

Ban of award-winning book

During the 27th edition of the Algiers International Book Fair, which took place from 8th to 16th November 2024, the novel “Houris” by Kamel Daoud, winner of the 2024 Goncourt Prize, was banned from the fair. The Gallimard publishing house had been notified that the novel was banned in Algeria because of its reference to the ‘black decade’, a name given to the Algerian civil war, which took place from 1991 to 2002, and whose mention is prohibited. The 2005 Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation punishes, among others, “anyone who, through statements, writings or any other act, uses or exploits the wounds of the national tragedy to undermine the institutions of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, weaken the State, damage the reputation of its officials who have served it with dignity or tarnish Algeria's image internationally” (article 46).

Arrest and detention of award-winning author

On 16th November 2024, Boualem Sansal, a 75-year-old Franco-Algerian novelist who has won several prestigious literary awards, was arrested by the Algerian authorities as he landed in Algiers. For a week, the Algerian government did not announce the arrest or offer an explanation for Sansal’s disappearance. In his fictional work, Boualem Sansal has often criticized the authoritarian excesses in his native country. He has also denounced corruption and the repression of dissident voices.

Sansal was charged with “undermining the territorial integrity of Algeria, undermining national unity and undermining and inciting the division of the country”, offences punishable by a prison sentence, believed to be related to statements he made in October 2024 to a French media outlet about the affiliation of western Algeria with Morocco during the colonial era. His French lawyer was not authorized to enter Algeria on time to provide legal assistance to Sansal. In a speech to the country, the President described Sansal as an “imposter”.

PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY

At the end of November 2024, sub-Saharan migrants reportedly protested in newly-built flats in the Rahmania locality in the west of Algiers to demand the back payment of their salaries by the Turkish construction company that employed them. The National Gendarmerie intervened and used tear gas to disperse the protesters.

ASSOCIATION

On 10th December 2024, the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) issued a statement announcing the creation of a new association called Collectif de sauvegarde de la Ligue algérienne pour la défense des droits de l'Homme (CS-LADDH) (Collective for the protection of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights) whose headquarters will be based in Paris. Algeria’s longest-standing independent human rights organisation was dissolved in 2022 (see previous Monitor update). Its members chose to reactivate the human rights entity from abroad. The CS-LADDH will continue the LADDH’s mission and will campaign for the legal and political rehabilitation of the LADDH and the reinstatement of its right to exist in Algeria.