Algeria: Saïd Bouteflika, Toufik and Hanoune acquitted

A military appeal court in Algeria acquitted, on Saturday, Saïd Bouteflika, the brother and ex-adviser of deposed president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and his three co-defendants, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for “conspiracy” against the army and the state. Following this surprise decision, Saïd Bouteflika will be transferred to another prison pending trial in other cases related to corruption during his brother’s 20 years in power, according to a judicial source. He had previously been detained in a military prison.

Saïd Bouteflika, a leader among other important defendants

Saïd Bouteflika was the influential special adviser to his brother Abdelaziz during his 20 years of presidency (1999-2019). His power had grown to the point of being considered as the “bis president”, as the health of the Head of State declined, victim of a stroke in 2013 which left him paralyzed and aphasic. After the forced resignation of his brother, Saïd Bouteflika was cited in several corruption cases in the company of former oligarchs close to the former Algerian president. Several magnates of the Bouteflika era were thus heavily condemned, including Ali Haddad, the former leader of the main Algerian employers’ organization, the Forum des chefs d’Entreprise (FCE).

An acquittal for Toufik and Louisa Hanoune too

In addition to Mr. Bouteflika, Generals Mohamed Mediène, dit Toufik, and Athmane Tartag, as well as Trotskyist activist Louisa Hanoune, convicted in this case, were acquitted on appeal by the military court of Blida, according to the defense lawyer, M^e Khaled Berghel, quoted by the APS news agency. Arrested in May 2019, the four defendants were sentenced in September of the same year to 15 years’ imprisonment in a flash trial before the military court of Blida, near Algiers, for “conspiracy against the authority of the ‘State and army’. “After the reading of the case on assistance by the president of the military court of appeal of Blida, the defendants Saïd Bouteflika, Mohamed Mediène, Athmane Tartag and Louisa Hanoune were heard and pleaded not guilty”, explained the lawyer. “After deliberation, the court […] made the decision to set aside the trial trial and acquit all the accused, ”he said. This was the third trial in the case.

A high impact court decision

Last November, the Supreme Court accepted the cassation appeal of Saïd Bouteflika and his co-defendants in this trial for “conspiracy”. And it had been decided to retry the case. The four acquitted were accused of having met in March 2019 to draw up a “destabilization plan” for the army high command which then publicly requested the departure of President Bouteflika to get out of the crisis born of the hirak, the unprecedented popular uprising which forced the former head of state to resign in April 2019. The 15-year prison sentences of Saïd Bouteflika, of Toufik, the former all-powerful head of the sprawling Department of Intelligence and Security ( DRS), and his ex-right arm Athmane Tartag, who had succeeded him, had been confirmed on appeal in February 2020. Louisa Hanoune, general secretary of the Workers’ Party (PT, Trotskyist), had seen his sentence reduced by fifteen years at three years, of which nine months are closed. She was released in February 2020.

Climate of repression

In addition, many hirak opponents and activists have also been arrested, tried and sentenced in a climate of repression against opponents, independent media and bloggers. According to the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD), an association helping prisoners of conscience, arrests and arrests targeting anti-regime activists are daily, despite the end of weekly hirak demonstrations since March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the CNLD, more than 90 people are currently detained in Algeria for facts related to the protest and to individual freedoms.