Algerian opposition figure Fethi Ghares, a prominent socialist and pro-democracy critic of the Algerian government, was arrested on Tuesday morning at his home in Algiers by three plainclothes police officers at 9:00 GMT, according to AFP.
His wife and the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD) reported that he was taken to an undisclosed location.
Ghares, 51, is a left-wing activist who gained prominence during the 2019 Hirak peaceful protest movement, which demanded sweeping changes to Algeria’s political system and the ouster of 20-year former dictator Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The leader of the now banned Democratic and Social Movement (MDS) was told that he needed to “answer for his actions,” but was not presented with an official summons, his wife said in a Facebook video after his arrest.
Although police initially assured her that he would be taken to a nearby police station, officers there later denied he was there.
The arrest comes just 15 days before Algeria’s presidential election on September 7, in which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is seeking a second term.
Ghares, who was previously imprisoned in 2021 for his involvement in the Hirak movement, was sentenced to two years in January 2022 for charges that included “insulting the President,” “offending public institutions,” and “spreading information harmful to national unity, and public order,” charges made possible under the now notorious new law Article 87 bis.
He was released in March 2022 after an appeal reduced his sentence.
Ghares’ MDS party traces its roots back to the Algerian Communist Party. The Algerian regime banned the MDS in February 2023. Ghares’ latest arrest in the run-up to a pivotal election heightens the rising concerns about the government’s escalation over the last two months of its crackdown on dissent, especially among Kabyles.
On August 20, the regime arrested the president of the Rally for Culture and Democracy party Athmane Mazouz, who had said he does not support having early presidential elections until all Kabyle political prisoners and those sentenced to death have been released, along with two dozen other members of the RCD party in Ifri Ouzellaguène, Kabylia.
The same day, the regime arrested Socialist Forces Front (FFS) party leaders Ali Laskri and Khaled Tazaghart, both Kabyle former members of Parliament. Altogether, 31 political opponents were arrested on August 20.
The intensified crackdown has gone well beyond political party leaders, however. It has included lawyers, journalists, and artists.
Maïtre Soufiane Ouali, the principal lawyer representing Kabyles against the state of Algeria, was taken into custody on or about July 9 when he went to check up on a client in jail who had announced she was going on a hunger strike.
Young Kabyle dancer and dance teacher Assalas was sentenced to 18 months in prison earlier this month for performing and teaching traditional Berber dance. Kabyle singer, Ferhat Ait Ali, a singer, was also arrested earlier in August.
In early July, pro-hirak singer, Djamila Bentouis, after having returned home to visit her dying mother and been arrested upon arrival at the airport, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 100,000 dinars for writing and performing a song about the protest movement.
In late June, Algerian police arrested director Omar Ferhat and editor-in-chief Sofiane Ghirous of “Algerie Scoop” after the news site had broadcast a video showing an Algerian businesswoman complaining about the “marginalization” of herself and other businesswomen during a meeting of entrepreneurs with government officials.
Journalists in Algeria have reported experiencing increased persecution since President Abdelmadjid Tebboune took office four years ago, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
This year, RSF dropped Algeria from 136th to 139th out of 180 countries in its 2024 freedom of speech rankings, citing the country’s “pressure on independent media and threats to arrest journalists.”
In June, popular news website Radio M announced that it would cease publication due to “impossible conditions,” while its editor, Ihsane El-Kadi, is serving a seven-year prison sentence on charges that his media company accepted foreign funds.More than 500 political prisoners are incarcerated in Algerian prisons, with arrests in Kabylia having been ramped up in July around Tebboune’s visit to Tizi Ouzou. Hundreds of Algerians are prohibited from leaving the national territory, designated as “ISTN: Interdit de Sortir du Territoire National.”
Others, such as journalist Farid Alilat, who has dual French-Algerian citizenship, have been interrogated and then expelled from the country as soon as they arrive at the airport.
Journalist Mustapha Bendjama, retired general and former politician Ali Ghediri, as well as Kabyle and Amazigh rights activists Kamira Naït Sid, former President of the World Amazigh Congress, and Mohand Berrache, are also serving prison sentences on various nebulous charges emanating from Article 87 bis.