The reasons for the arrest are for the moment unknown but this figure of the Hirak, the popular protest movement, was sentenced twice in 2020 for “attack on national security” due to criticism of Algerian power .
Le Monde with AFP
The Algerian Human Rights League (LADDH) announced the arrest of Karim Tabbou, a figure of the Hirak pro-democracy movement in Algeria, Friday April 29 evening. “We do not yet know the reasons for this new arrest,” said the human rights organization on its Facebook page.
“Stop the instrumentalization of justice, opinion is not an offense”, also posted on Facebook, the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), by announcing the arrest of the activist “At his home”.
On April 26, Mr. Tabbou published on Facebook a “tribute to Hakim Debbazi”, 55, arrested in February for social networks publications, the death of which was announced earlier this week by the LADDH.
“Dead physically, the martyrs of the right causes are more than living,” said Tabbou in his publication, making the authorities responsible for his death following a cardiac arrest.
“Of course the power remains and will remain the one and only responsible for his death,” continues Mr. Tabbou in his message. In his publication, Mr. Tabbou pays homage to Mr. Debbazi, whom he describes as “a child of the people, a modest and humble citizen, father of three children who had engaged body and soul in the hirak”. According to Mr. Tabbou, the deceased had “taken on his frail shoulders, all the weight of the claims expressed in the Hirak”, of which he had become “one of the main animators in his locality” of Hadjout (West).
“Let us keep the meaning of his sacrifice, let’s stay constant and continue our fight for the advent of a rule of law. Betting in peace Hakim, your fight will not be vain,” adds Tabbou in his publication.
approximately 300 opponents still imprisoned
Karim Tabbou was sentenced, in December 2020, to a year in suspended prison sentence for “attack on national security”, a sentence which had allowed him not to return to prison. Arrested in September 2019 as part of this case, he had been imprisoned for nine months before benefiting from parole in July 2020.
In another case, Karim Tabbou had been sentenced on appeal in March 2020 to a year in prison for the same chief of “attack on national security”, due to a video published on the Facebook page of Facebook page His party in which he criticized the interference of the army in political affairs, a penalty he purged.