by Jim Bronskill
Source: The Canadian Press
URL: [link]
Date: December 3, 2024
A lawyer for terrorism suspect Mohamed Harkat told a Federal Court judge Tuesday the Algerian-born refugee has been linked to extremists through speculation, not hard evidence.
Harkat, 56, was arrested in Ottawa in December 2002 on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent.
Harkat says he fled strife-ridden Algeria and worked with an aid agency in Pakistan before he arrived in Canada in 1995 using a false Saudi passport. He denies any involvement in terrorism.
The federal government has long been trying to deport the former gas-station attendant using a security certificate – a legal tool for removing non-citizens suspected of ties to extremism or espionage.
A Federal Court judge who reviewed the certificate ruled in 2010 there were grounds to believe Harkat is a security threat who maintained ties to Osama bin Laden’s terror network after coming to Canada.
The judge found Harkat operated a guest house for Ibn Khattab and his organization for at least 15 months in Pakistan, demonstrating active membership in an organization involved in terrorist activities.
Harkat is back in Federal Court challenging a 2018 decision by a federal delegate that he should not be allowed to remain in Canada. He argues he faces a risk of torture if returned to Algeria.
In a written submission to the court, federal lawyers note the delegate found that Harkat’s role as the operator of Khattab’s guest house made the recruitment, vetting, preparation and training of jihadists and terrorists possible.
This allowed the Khattab organization, and the broader bin Laden network with which it was linked, to commit various terrorist acts, the submission adds.
In their own submission, counsel for Harkat question the evidence that Khattab was indeed a terrorist.
Lawyer Barbara Jackman, representing Harkat, told the hearing Tuesday the federal conclusions were not only unreasonable, but “also it’s taking facts and speculating to fill in the blanks.”
Jackman said operating a guest house is not a crime.
“Doesn’t it depend on the knowledge and intent of the person who’s operating the guest house?” asked Justice John Norris.
The judge suggested the government would need to establish that Harkat knew the purpose of the place.
Jackman said Harkat denies even working at the guest house.
Even so, she took issue with the evidentiary reasoning. “You have to show a connection to the crime or the criminal organization in some kind of real way,” she said. “He’s a passive actor running a hotel that people come in and out of.”
At the end of the hearing, Norris said he would make a ruling on Harkat’s challenge at a later date.
Civil libertarians have criticized the security certificate process as fundamentally unjust because the detainee sees only a summary of the accusations, making them difficult to challenge.
In a 2014 ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada said the security certificate regime does not violate the person’s right to know and contest the allegations they face.
The Supreme Court also concluded Harkat “benefited from a fair process” when Noel reviewed his case.
by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: September 21, 2024
Harkat was arrested on Dec. 10, 2002, in the heated aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Twenty-two years after the federal government first launched its bid to deport Ottawa’s Mohamed Harkat to his native Algeria as a terrorist, a court will once again convene to consider the case.
A Federal Court hearing in December will review the “minister’s opinion,” written by an unnamed senior official at Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada, that concluded Harkat posed a serious threat to Canada as a member of the al-Qaida network and should be deported despite holding refugee status in this country.
The judicial review will decide if that opinion, issued in October 2018, was legally fair and reasonable.
Harkat, now 56, arrived in Canada in October 1995 and has been living in Ottawa, or jail, ever since.
He says he will be tortured or killed if returned to Algeria, a country he fled in 1990 as a university student opposed to its then military-backed government. After leaving Algeria, he spent five years in Pakistan.
The minister’s opinion said that although Harkat did not commit terrorist acts directly, he was “complicit” in the crimes of those he assisted.
The opinion also concluded it was unlikely Harkat would be mistreated in Algeria given how much time has passed since he left the country.
“After fully considering all facets of this case, including the humanitarian aspects, and an assessment of the possible risks that Mr. Harkat might face if returned to Algeria, and the need to protect Canadian society, I find that the latter outweighs the former,” the official said. “I am of the opinion that the nature and severity of acts weighs in favour of Mr. Harkat’s removal from Canada.”
Harkat has asked Federal Court Justice John Norris to quash the minister’s opinion and let him stay in Canada permanently.
In court documents filed as part of the hearing, defence lawyer Barbara Jackman said the idea that Harkat committed acts so grave that he should be deported to a country where he could be tortured is “irresponsible and perverse” and “makes a mockery of the process.”
Section 115 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act says Convention refugees cannot be deported to a country where they’re at risk of persecution, torture or cruel and unusual punishment, unless they pose a danger to the security of Canada.
Jackman contends Harkat is an ordinary refugee who has lived peacefully in Canada for decades and has never taken part in an act of violence or been directly connected to one.
He has built a family, home and community in Ottawa, she said, despite being mistreated by overzealous security officials.
Jackman alleged the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) are trying to “salvage their own reputations” given that three of the five people detained under the security certificate regime have won their court cases.
“Mr. Harkat’s refoulement to Algeria would be the final chapter in the hyped narrative maintained by the CBSA and CSIS over the years,” she wrote.
Harkat was arrested on Dec. 10, 2002, in the heated aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when North American security agencies were under intense pressure to identify and neutralize al-Qaida “sleeper cells.”
He was taken into custody on the strength of a security certificate, a powerful and rarely used instrument of Canada’s immigration law. It allows the government to detain foreign-born terror suspects indefinitely and to present evidence in secret against them.
Harkat spent more than three years in jail, including a year in solitary confinement, and was under strict house arrest years after that.
Before his arrest, he worked as a pizza delivery man and gas station attendant while also developing an expensive casino gambling habit. He married Sophie Lamarche, whom he met at the gas station, in January 2001.
Harkat has always maintained he had nothing to do with al-Qaida, and was never involved in terrorism.
In December 2010, Federal Court Judge Simon Noël deemed Harkat a member of the terrorist network and linked him to several Islamic extremists, including Canadian Ahmed Said Khadr, Saudi-born Ibn Khattab and Abu Zubaydah. He said Harkat operated a guest house for Khattab in Peshawar, Pakistan for at least 15 months.
Noël also found that Harkat offered assistance to two Islamic extremists who travelled to Canada.
The government’s case against Harkat was based on written summaries of 13 wiretapped phone conversations – the original tapes were destroyed – and at least two unnamed informants, one of whom failed a lie-detector test. Some parts of the government’s case remain secret to this day.
An appeal court later overturned Noël’s ruling due to what it regarded as procedural unfairness.
In May 2014, however, the Supreme Court upheld the government’s security certificate regime and reinstated Noël’s decision that found Harkat to be an active member of the al-Qaida network.
In the decade since then, Harkat has been living and working in Ottawa – he’s now a church janitor – while fighting his extradition in court.
In an affidavit filed in Federal Court, Harkat said he would be imperilled in Algeria by virtue of the media attention that has accompanied his case and by the terrorist label attached to him.
“I am not a terrorist, but the profile given me is that of a terrorist,” he wrote. “I cannot escape this profile, and it puts me very much in danger in Algeria.”
Harkat conceded that the Supreme Court has found him to be a member of a terrorist network, but insisted that he “cannot admit involvement in terrorist acts that I never committed.”
“I am not a threat to the security of any country, including Canada,” he insisted, “and I have not engaged in any acts of violence, much less a serious one, which would justify my return to Algeria.”
The Harkat case is one of Canada’s longest-running judicial matters.
By: Statement by FIDH (International Federation For Human Rights)
Source: FIDH Web Site
URL: [link]
Date: November 25, 2023
Ahead of UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor’s visit to Algeria from November 26 to December 5, 12 NGOs, including FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of the Observatory, express alarm about the erosion of the human rights situation and the systematic crackdown against human rights defenders. We call on Ms. Lawlor to pay attention to the risks of harassment and intimidation faced by defenders she may meet during the visit. Currently, over 230 human rights defenders and journalists languish behind bars, victims of a relentless crackdown on fundamental rights.
The Algerian authorities should end their crackdown on fundamental rights and freedoms and release all human rights defenders and activists who unjustly languish in jail, said 12 NGOs today, ahead of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders’ visit to Algeria, from 26 November to 5 December. The visit comes amid a dire human rights situation, with over 230 activists, journalists and human rights defenders currently imprisoned solely for exercising their rights to freedom of speech, association and peaceful assembly. The mandate of Special Rapporteur, Mary Lawlor, includes reporting on the situation of human rights defenders, broadly defined as ‘all persons, who individually or in association with others, act to promote or protect human rights peacefully.’
It will be of utmost importance for the Special Rapporteur to pay particular attention to the risk of harassment and intimidation of civil society activists she may meet during her visit to Algeria. We draw the attention of the Special Rapporteur to a possible case of reprisals against Ahmed Manseri, the President of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (Ligue algérienne pour la défense des droits de l’Homme, LADDH) in Tiaret. He was arrested on 8 October 2023 and sentenced to one year in prison under spurious charges of disseminating documents that harm the national interest, incitement to unarmed assembly, and attack on the integrity of the national territory. On 17 September 2023, Manseri met with the UN special rapporteur on freedom of association and peaceful assembly, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, during his visit to Algeria from 16 to 26 September 2023. The signatory organizations call on the Algerian authorities to refrain from any acts of reprisal aimed at punishing or intimidating human rights defenders.
Over the past two years, Algerian authorities have shut down almost all spaces for dissent. They have dismantled most independent civil society groups that were created to defend human rights, and have shuttered the remaining media outlets that represent voices of resistance in the face of the prevailing authoritarianism in the country. Prominent associations such as the LADDH and the Youth Action Rally (Rassemblement Actions Jeunesse, RAJ), created in 1989 and 1992 respectively, have been dissolved by the administrative tribunal merely for activities that are inherent to their mandate, such as hosting conferences critical of the authorities, meeting with foreign activists, or defending minority rights. Authorities have often relied on vague and broadly worded laws to curtail the ability of human rights defenders to operate freely. For example, a tribunal in Algiers sentenced Nacer Meghnine, the president of the association SOS Bab el-Oued, to one year in prison for ‘undermining national interest’ after they found publications in the premises of the association denouncing repression, arbitrary arrests and torture.
Co-Signatories
1. Action Détenus
2. Agir pour le changement et la démocratie en Algérie (ACDA)
3. Association Tharwa n’Fadhma n’Soumer
4. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
5. Collectif des Familles de Disparu.e.s en Algérie
6. Comité de Sauvegarde de la Ligue Algérienne de Défense des Droits de l’Homme (Safeguard Committee of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights)
7. EuroMed Rights
8. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
9. Mena Rights Group
10. Riposte internationale
11. SOS Disparus
12. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Members Organizations - Algeria
1. Collectif des Familles de Disparu(e)s en Algérie (CFDA)
2. Ligue Algérienne de Défense des Droits de l’Homme (LADDH)
by Elise Swain
Source: The Intercept
URL: [link]
Date: July 26, 2023
In emails obtained by The Intercept, the State Department made repeated assurances about Saeed Bakhouch’s “appropriate and humane treatment.”
When Saeed Bakhouch was repatriated to Algeria in late April from the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay after 21 years of detention without charge, his lawyer was assured by the State Department that he would be treated humanely. Still, his longtime lawyer, H. Candace Gorman, worried about her client’s upcoming release. Bakhouch’s mental health had deteriorated in the last five years; he had stopped meeting with her and retreated into himself. She feared that her client might be arrested after being returned to Algeria unless given real help and resources.
That’s exactly what happened. Almost immediately after Bakhouch landed in Algiers, he passed through the usual interrogation process for former Guantánamo detainees in Algeria. After a two-week period of detention and interrogation, he appeared before a judge in early May. The judge told Bakhouch that his story did not match the information the U.S. provided, Gorman explained to The Intercept.
“He was being stripped of all of his rights,” Gorman said. Bakhouch was sent into pretrial detention and, for nearly three months, he has been held under brutal conditions. His hair and beard were forcibly shaved; he has been physically assaulted; and he has been deprived of his Guantánamo-issued medications to treat his injured heel. Now, human rights groups are alleging that Bakhouch is facing severe abuses in detention.
As the Biden administration works to end America’s “forever wars” abroad, the State Department ramped up efforts to release the remaining 16 Guantánamo prisoners who were never charged with any crime and have been cleared to leave the prison. (In total, 30 detainees are still at Guantánamo.) Since Joe Biden assumed office, a slow but steady stream of these prisoners have quietly left the prison’s infamous gates. Like Bakhouch, they are all followed by a vexing question with few answers: Who, ultimately, is responsible for deciding what their freedom means?
Re-imprisoned in Algeria, Bakhouch is only the latest in a string of former Guantánamo detainees facing rights abuses after repatriation or placement in third countries. The question of responsibility over his well-being has pitted the State Department against human rights advocates who contend that his condition meets no viable definition of freedom.
“If anyone had ever given me any hint at the State Department that they have no authority once he steps off the plane, I would have put the brakes on because I know Saeed trusted that I wouldn’t let him go unless I was assured that he would be treated right,” Gorman told The Intercept. “And so the fact that they are now claiming that there’s nothing they can do and that this is a different country and we have no control over that — then why the fuck are you telling me you have their assurances.” (The State Department did not provide comment on this story by publication time.)
In June, the United Nations special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, published a detailed report on rights violations related to the U.S. detention at Guantánamo. Among other abuses, Ní Aoláin found that transfers of detainees to foreign countries had resulted in their own human rights violations. Among other complaints — torture, arbitrary detention, and disappearances, in some cases — she found in 30 percent of documented cases, the released detainees were not given proper legal status by the recipient countries.
“In these harmful transfers, facilitated and supported by the United States,” the U.N. report said, “there is a legal and moral obligation for the U.S. Government to use all of its diplomatic and legal resources to facilitate (re)transfer of these men, with meaningful assurance and support to other countries.”
As men continue to be released from the prison at Guantánamo, Ní Aoláin told The Intercept that she “continues to be deeply concerned about the robustness of the U.S. Government’s non-refoulement assessment and the protection of human rights for those who have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to countries of nationality or third countries.”
Human rights Letter
In a desperate effort to draw attention to Bakhouch’s enduring incarceration, the Center for Constitutional Rights, or CCR, published an open letter with signatories from the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and other nongovernmental groups, urgently pressuring the State Department to intervene. The letter, published Wednesday and shared exclusively in advance with The Intercept, alleges that the U.S. provided the Algerian government with harmful and unfounded allegations about Bakhouch’s past — information that led to his detention — and that Bakhouch is imprisoned under severe conditions which violate international law. (The Algerian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.)
“Despite being transferred out of Guantánamo on the basis that he no longer posed a significant risk to the United States,” the letter says, “Mr. Bakhouch was told by the Algerian lawyer assigned to represent him in trial that the United States provided the information to the Algerian government that led to them charging him with having sworn allegiance to Osama Bin Laden.”
“This allegation is woefully unfounded,” the letter continues, “and we are deeply troubled by the fact that Mr. Bakhouch is being detained on this basis and enduring abuse in Algerian custody, purportedly in part because of false or incomplete intelligence information from the United States.”
The CCR-led letter is addressed to Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, who heads the State Department office responsible for transferring men out of Guantánamo Bay. Kaidanow was appointed in August 2022 and has been repeatedly criticized in the past for failure to respond to botched resettlement deals. Most of the deals were not of her own making; she inherited a mess of released detainees in crisis — some have been re-incarcerated and tortured, forcibly repatriated, or denied legal asylum status.
With only her office to appeal to for assistance, lawyers and human rights advocates are growing increasingly concerned that, irrespective of the deals’ authorship, the struggling former prisoners have no diplomatic support from the State Department.
Now, with Bakhouch’s immediate and brutal re-incarceration, Kaidanow appears to be helming her own botched deal.
State Department Assurances
Emails from Kaidanow and her staff at the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism to Gorman, which were obtained by The Intercept, show a pattern of vague reassurances, incompetence, and general disregard.
After Bakhouch’s release was approved but before he was transferred out of Guantánamo, he languished simply because the staffer who needed to sign his papers was unaware that was a part of their job responsibilities, Gorman learned from a phone call with Anand Prakash, a policy adviser to the Office of the Special Representative for Guantánamo Affairs. Prakash, she said, apparently found the mishap funny, leading Gorman to become more concerned that the State Department staff wasn’t taking her concerns for Bakhouch’s well-being seriously.
“With no family to help Mr. Bakhouch this will be a very difficult transition and I fear my client might become homeless — or worse — locked up,” Gorman wrote to Prakash. “Please let me know what you can about assistance that will be offered to Mr. Bakhouch.”
Prakash, who was unable to provide details of the diplomatic agreement with Algeria, replied, “I can assure you we will work to ensure that he is given appropriate and humane treatment upon return.”
On May 7, Gorman informed the State Department’s Guantánamo desk that her client had not been released as she had expected; instead, he had been re-imprisoned. “This is very distressing for us to hear – it’s not the outcome we expected when we repatriated Saeed to Algeria, and we are taking steps to find out exactly what happened,” Jessica Heinz, a staffer in the Guantánamo Affairs office, replied a day later. “I assure you we are looking into this and will take the steps necessary to ensure Saeed is in a good place post-release.”
As the month of May unfolded and Bakhouch sat in prison, Gorman repeatedly emailed asking for updates and more information — missives that went largely unanswered. By the end of the month, the veteran lawyer had received no updates or new information on the circumstances of her client’s imprisonment from Prakash or Heinz.
Fed up with the apparent inattention to the issue, Gorman eventually escalated and fired off a heated email to Kaidanow herself. Gorman pleaded for immediate help, pointing to Bakhouch’s severe mental health struggles with PTSD and depression. “I recognize your concern,” Kaidanow wrote back. “We and our colleagues in Algeria are doing everything we can to ascertain what the status of Mr. Bakhouch currently is and what his ultimate disposition will be. We take every precaution possible to ensure that detainees will be effectively rehabilitated once they are returned, but we cannot prevent the receiving country from acting according to their own laws and procedures.”
Bakhouch’s Mental Health
The letter from CCR to Kadainow raised the State Department failure to fully reckon with Bakhouch’s mental health issues. It was a point Gorman repeatedly emphasized prior to her client’s release from Guantánamo. The State Department staff writing the emails obtained by The Intercept at no point specifically acknowledge Gorman’s repeated concerns over Bakhouch’s mental well-being.
“Before his transfer, the State Department was made aware of a medical opinion about Mr. Bakhouch’s mental trauma and diagnosis of PTSD and depression related to his torture and detention, and that his U.S. attorney communicated concerns about his reintegration in Algeria to your office several times,” the letter says. “Unfortunately and alarmingly, these concerns seemed to have been disregarded at best and weaponized at worst now that Mr. Bakhouch is in custody in Algeria.”
Concerned that Bakhouch had no family support in Algeria, Gorman continually asked about adequate resources to make sure he did not become homeless after repatriation. In one email, Prakash suggested Gorman reach out to Reprieve and the International Committee of the Red Cross — two nongovernmental groups that work with former detainees and human rights issues — to help Bakhouch readjust to life in Algeria.
At one point before Bakhouch’s release to Algeria, Gorman requests information on what assistance the State Department planned to give her client. “Could you please tell me if our government has made any arrangements with the Algerian government to help settle Mr. Bakhouch when he arrives back in Algiers?” she asked.
“There’s not a whole lot I can share re the specifics of our bilateral arrangements,” Prakash wrote in an email, “but I can say we are working to ascertain what the host gov can provide after transfer, and I can assure you we will work to ensure that he is given appropriate and humane treatment upon return. As you likely know, our standard agreements include reference to humane treatment.”
In the emails reviewed by The Intercept, Kaidanow invokes her commitments to personally ensure that each transfer goes smoothly with a focus on “reintegration and rehabilitation.”
Sufyian Barhoumi, another former Guantánamo detainee who was repatriated to Algeria in early April 2022, said those words mean “nothing at all.” Barhoumi and his lawyer, CCR’s Shayana Kadidal, said they have not been contacted by either the U.S. or Algerian governments. Barhoumi said nongovernmental organizations too, including the ICRC and Reprieve, had been unable to offer him assistance.
“In the course of Reprieve’s Life After Guantánamo work,” Reprieve’s U.S. joint executive director Maya Foa wrote to The Intercept, “we have consistently seen how hard it is for men subjected to this appalling mistreatment over many years to escape further persecution — whether repatriated or transferred to host countries. For many men, the abuse follows them forever; the stain of Guantánamo does not disappear once they are transferred.” (The ICRC did not meet the deadline to comment prior to publication.)
“Arbitrarily detaining so many men without trial has indelibly stained the USA’s reputation as a country founded on the rule of law,” Foa said. “Rehabilitation, reintegration, and reparation for all the men is the direct responsibility of the U.S. Government.” (Reprieve U.S. is a signatory on the letter sent Wednesday to Kaidanow.)
With no income or resources, Barhoumi said he feels stuck and alone: “I just need to start my life.”
State Shirking Responsibility
Gorman has continued to try to spur the State Department into action on Bakhouch’s behalf. Nearly two full months after Bakhouch was imprisoned in Algeria, Kadainow finally replied with specifics, saying she had “a chance” to speak with relevant diplomatic colleagues.
“Our Ambassador in Algiers was informed that Mr. Bakhouch is being charged under Algerian law for membership/affiliation with a foreign terrorist organization, which is a serious crime under Algerian law,” Kaidanow wrote. “He is currently under pre-trial detention while his case is under review by the Court d’Instruction, which will ultimately decide whether to bring him to trial or dismiss the charges and release him. The information regarding his case is still sealed.”
Kaidanow added, “We continue to assert our interest in his humane treatment and legal rights in a variety of high-level settings.”
The U.S. — and Kaidanow’s — position seems clear: Algeria is responsible for what they now intend to do with their citizen. The U.S. has no further responsibility beyond asking them to honor their commitment to human rights.
For CCR, the lack of direct intervention is unacceptable, but there is little to do but continue to advocate for more care.
“Closing Guantanamo is not just about policy, it’s about people — the people who’ve been detained and tortured by the United States, and the obligations that the U.S. government has to them because of this,” said Aliya Hussain, CCR’s advocacy program manager. “These international law obligations continue even after the men are transferred to other countries, and they are unequivocal, which the Special Rapporteur makes clear in her recent report.”
If the State Department doesn’t follow up and enforce diplomatic assurances, the assurances are worthless, Hussain explained. “How they respond to Mr. Bakhouch’s situation in Algeria will signal how much oversight and advocacy they are willing and committed to undertaking to ensure the success of future transfers.”
Source: North Africa Post
URL: [link]
Date: March 21, 2023
The US State Department exposed the degradation of human rights of the military regime in Algiers which has deployed brutal tactics to silence dissent including pretrial detention, torture, cham terrorism charges and free speech muzzeling.
The State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released this March, starts by questioning the atmosphere of elections which was marred by restrictions on civil liberties and “lack of transparency in vote counting procedures,” underlining the very low turnout that brought puppet civilian president Tebboune to power despite popular protests for a clean break with military rule.
Cases of torture abound in the “new Algeria” of General Chengriha as the report cites many cases including that of activist Mohamed Benhalima who was tortured, beaten up, and sexually abused by authorities during his imprisonment. Yet, there has been no official investigation into these degrading treatments.
Benhalima had denounced corruption in the military at the beginning of 2019 while living in exile in Spain following his participation in the Hirak protest movement.
The rise in cases of disappearances and arbitrary detentions was also highlighted by the US State Department which mentions the ordeal of activist Abdelhamid Bouziza who was kidnapped from his home in Tlemcen on October 19.
“Authorities did not address his detention until November 8, when they announced he was being held in Hay El Darwich prison in Blida on terrorism charges.”
The use of terrorism charges has been tailored to silence peaceful dissidents as “authorities cited broad provisions under the penal code, including membership in a terrorist organization, to arrest or punish critics including journalists and human rights defenders.”
In February the Middle East Institute reported that 59 detainees were being held under expanded terrorism-related charges under the penal code that the NGO reported were being imposed on “peaceful political activists.”
Prominent human rights activists estimate the number of political prisoners in Algeria to be higher than 300 including journalists, lawyers, opposition figures and Hirak protesters.
The Algerian regime has also silenced the press sending influential journalists such as Kadi Ihssane to jail for expressing views that criticized the regime.
Besides cracking down on free speech at home, Algeria has imposed a blackout on the situation in the country preventing foreign journalists from freely reporting and rejecting visits by UN human rights delegations.
The US State department report also deplores the violations affecting refugees and vulnerable groups.
“Black Algerians and sub-Saharan African migrants were discriminated against and subject to racism,” the report said.
Source: Article19.org
URL: [link]
Date: March 14, 2023
ARTICLE 19, together with 16 other human rights organisations, have written a joint letter to the government of Tunisia regarding the case of Algerian human rights defender Zakaria (‘Zaki’) Hannache. Algerian authorities have called for Hannache, who is currently in exile Tunisia, to be extradited to Algeria. The organisations urge the government not to comply with this request, and remind Tunisian authorities that he is entitled to protection as a refugee. The United Nations Committee against Torture has also appealed to the government not to extradite Hannache. If he is returned to Algeria, he is likely to face persecution and ill treatment.
The full letter follows.
To the government of Tunisia,
We, the undersigned human rights organisations, write to express our deep concern about the current situation of Zakaria (‘Zaki’) Hannache, an Algerian human rights defender, whose extradition has been recently requested by the Algerian authorities. We hereby wish to remind you that he enjoys international protection as a refugee and that the UN Committee against Torture asked you, as recently as 6 March 2023, not to extradite him to Algeria.
Since 2019, Hannache has been documenting and publishing information on the arrests and prosecutions of prisoners of conscience in Algeria, particularly in relation to the peaceful protest movement known as Hirak.
Following his arrest in February 2022, he faced several charges linked to his activism. After being detained for 6 weeks in Algeria, he was provisionally released on bail in March 2022. In the following months, Hannache was subject to acts of intimidation and pressure, prompting him to travel to Tunisia, where he sought medical support in August 2022.
On 9 November, 2022, Hannache learned that he had been summoned to a hearing in the court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers, scheduled for 13 November. This prompted him to apply for asylum with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) the next day. He learned that Tunisian police, specifically the anti-terrorist brigade, had inquired about him in at least two locations in Tunis during the week of 15 November. He was granted refugee status by the UNHCR on 18 November, 2022.
Tunisia has previously cooperated with Algeria in its efforts to forcibly return exiled peaceful opponents and human rights defenders. This was apparently the case for Slimane Bouhafs, a UNHCR-recognised refugee, and Christian Amazigh activist who was abducted and forcibly returned from Tunis on 25 August 2021.
Fearing a repetition of the dangerous precedent set by the extrajudicial return of Slimane Bouhafs, MENA Rights Group and a Tunis-based human rights researcher submitted a request for interim measures on behalf of Zaki Hannache before the UN Committee against Torture, which were transmitted to your government on 5 December 2022.
On 2 March 2023, Hannache learned that the court of Sidi M’hamed had sentenced him in absentia to 3 years in prison. Neither he nor his lawyers were aware of the trial’s occurrence. One of his lawyers coincidentally discovered the decision while dealing with a separate case in court. Another of his lawyers confirmed that an international arrest warrant and an extradition request were sent by Algeria the same day. In light of this new development, the Committee against Torture sent you a follow-up communication on 6 March, 2023, asking you not to extradite Hannache.
The undersigned organisations recall that as a refugee, Hannache is protected from refoulement by the 1951 UN Refugee Convention that your country has ratified as well as under the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. As a State party to the 1984 Convention against Torture, Tunisia is bound not to expel, return or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. As such, we call on your government to respect Hannache’s international protection and to inform the Committee against Torture of your willingness not to extradite him while his case is under review.
Signatories:
– ACAT-France
– Amnesty International Tunisia
– ARTICLE 19
– Cairo Institute For Human Rights (CIHRS)
– Centre Justitia pour la protection juridique des droits de l’Homme en Algérie
– EuroMed Rights
– FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
– Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Économiques et Sociaux FTDES
– Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
– Human Rights Watch (HRW)
– HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement
– International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
– Ligue Algérienne de défense des droits humains – LADDH ALGÉRIE
– MENA Rights Group
– Minority Rights Group
– Terre d’Asile Tunisie
– World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Algeria: UN expert says crackdown on civil society and human rights defenders must end
by Press Release
Source: United Nations Human Rights Office of The High Commissioner
URL: [link]
Date: February 22, 2023
GENEVA (22 February 2023) – A UN expert today expressed concern over an escalating crackdown against civil society by Algerian authorities after the dissolutions of la Ligue Algérienne pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (LADDH) and le Rassemblement Actions Jeunesse (RAJ), two of the most important human rights associations in Algeria.
“Acts of intimidation, silencing and repression against the human rights movement must end,” said Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. “The decision to dissolve such respected human rights associations demonstrates an alarming crackdown on civil society organisations and seriously undermines the space for human rights defenders to carry out their legitimate human rights activities, and to freely associate and express themselves. The decisions to dissolve those two renowned human rights organisations must be reversed,” she said.
The UN expert said the procedure against LADDH did not respect the principles of the right to a fair trial. The association was not informed of the case brought against it by the Ministry of Interior in May 2022, the trial date at the Administrative Court in June 2022 nor the decision of dissolution. “LADDH was not provided the opportunity to consider the charges brought against it and to present a defence,” Lawlor said.
RAJ was also subject to a dissolution decision by the Administrative Court in October 2021. The UN expert awaits the outcome of their appeal hearing, which will take place on 23 February 2023 at the State Council.
“We have been sharing strong concerns over numerous provisions of the Algerian law on associations (12/06), which contradict international human rights law,” the Special Rapporteur said.
The dissolutions take place in a climate where human rights defenders do not feel safe to carry out their work and exercise their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. Several members of LADDH have allegedly faced obstacles to and retaliation for their cooperation with the United Nations, particularly when actively participating in Algeria’s Universal Periodic Review in 2022, the UN expert said.
“I look forward to upcoming country visits by relevant mandate holders in 2023 to engage in meaningful conversations about protecting civic space with Algerian authorities,” Lawlor said.
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*The expert: Ms. Mary Lawlor (Ireland) is the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
The statement is endorsed byMr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and Ms. Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.
The UN Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.
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Source: Agence France Presse
URL: [link]
Date: January 27, 2023
Three rights groups on Friday denounced what they called a deteriorating situation in Algeria, describing the government's actions as "more concerning than ever".
The Human Rights League (LDH), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) highlighted what they said was a constant attack on freedoms since 2019.
That was the year the Hirak protests unseated longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
"The deterioration of the human rights situation in Algeria is more concerning than ever," said the statement.
There has been a "permanent deterioration and clear violations of fundamental rights and freedoms" since the protests that started in June 2019, the statement added.
The situation had only worsened since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, they said, accusing the authorities of trying to crack down on the Hirak movement.
The statement referred to the closure last Sunday of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) and the arrest and imprisonment of prominent journalist Ihsane El Kadi as recent examples of the crackdown.
The three groups called on the Algerian authorities to respect human rights as set out in the international treaties it has signed.
The Hirak protests continued for months, demanding the dismantling of the political system and its representatives, who have been in power for several decades.
Rights groups say hundreds of people have been arrested in relation to the movement.
Click on the photo of Mohamed to see all items related to him. JUNE 2017: Mohamed Harkat once again faces deportation to his native Algeria after the Supreme Court of Canada declared the federal government’s security certificate regime constitutional.
This fight is not over. The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee will re-double its efforts to see that justice is done for Mohamed Harkat and that the odious security certificate system of injustice is abolished once and for all.
