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Algeria: After bleeding his country dry, oligarch Ali Haddad faces grim future
Several years ago, the Algerian authorities turned a blind eye to the acquisition of a luxury hotel in Barcelona by disgraced Algerian oligarch Ali Haddad. It did so because the regime at its highest echelon was deeply tied to the world of crooked businessmen that...
Algeria: Regime’s intolerance for LGBT community
Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Algeria to immediately release two men imprisoned for homosexuality and to void the convictions of all 44 people prosecuted in the same case. On September 3, an Algerian court sentenced two men to three years' jail and 42 people to...
Algeria: Alleged daughter of Bouteflika and professional crook gets 12 years jail sentence
A prominent Algerian businesswoman, allegedly an illegitimate child of ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison after being convicted of corruption. An Algiers court also fined her six million dinars ($47,000) and ordered...
Migrants in Algeria confronted with mass deportations and abuse
Algerian security forces have arrested thousands of migrants and asylum seekers, cramming them onto trucks and buses before expelling them across the border in Niger, Human Rights Watch said Friday. "Algeria is entitled to protect its borders, but not to arbitrarily...
Podcast: One more election in Algeria and a highly compromised economic outlook
In this episode, Arezki Daoud of MEA Risk LLC and Editor of the North Africa Journal revisits Algeria after the most recent brief review on Egypt. Why Algeria? because the country is bracing for yet another election on 1 November with the government of President...
Algeria: Islamo-conservatives on the attack, unite in their disdain for minority languages and secularism
Algerian extremist court punishes man for his religious views, more human rights abuses by conservative judges An Algerian court on Thursday handed a key member of the Hirak anti-government protest movement a 10-year prison sentence for "inciting atheism", a rights...
Algerians in shock after murder of 19-year old woman
The rape and murder in Algeria of a 19-year-old woman sparked cries for action on gender-based violence in the North African country and calls to bring back capital punishment. The body of the young woman, identified as Chaima, was found in early October at a deserted...
Algerians defy regime repression, return to the street to demand change
Hundreds of Algerians defied a nationwide ban on protests and took to the streets Monday to demand democratic change and mark the anniversary of 1988 demonstrations that ushered in reforms. Around 400 to 500 demonstrators in Algiers tried to march to the city centre...
Algeria: Regime pushes for another unpopular poll: a constitution crafted for army-appointed President Tebboune
Algeria is readying for a constitutional referendum that the establishment says will usher in a "New Republic" and boost freedoms, but the opposition dismisses as window-dressing by a repressive regime. With a month to go before the November 1 vote, many ordinary...
With Russia’s presence in Libya and turmoil in the Sahel, US seeks to reengage with the Maghreb
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed a 10-year military cooperation deal with Tunis Wednesday during his first stop on a regional tour, hailing US-Tunisia collaboration over the conflict in neighbouring Libya. The past decade has seen growing cooperation between the...
Algerian lawyers hit back at government abuses, announce strike next week
Algeria's bar association said Monday it would hold a nationwide two-day strike this week to demand "respect for the right to a defence". In a statement, the National Union of Bar Associations urged lawyers to hold a "general strike... to protest against violations of...
Algerian regime jails activist Brahim Laalami and opposition politician Khaled Tazaghart
An Algerian court on Sunday sentenced to three years in jail a member of the "Hirak" protest movement that forced longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign last year, a rights group said. The group, CNLD, lists prisoners of conscience in Algeria. It said...
Algeria intensifies judicial harassment of Hirak activists
Since the sentencing of journalist Khaled Drareni and the re-arrest of Mohamed Laalami, several political activists have been targeted by a campaign of judicial harassment, worsening Algeria’s repressive strategy of ending political dissent and its human rights...
Algeria: Migrants perish off the coast of Algeria, hundreds rescued
Algiers, Sept 22, 2020 - Algeria said Tuesday coast guard officers had collected the bodies of 10 people drowned while seeking to cross from the North African nation to Europe, also stopping 485 migrants. Thousands regularly risk the dangerous crossing crammed onto...
Algeria: Incapable of governing, President Tebboune justifies repression with imaginary “destabilization” conspiracy
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has accused press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) of working to "destabilise" the country with its campaign against the jailing of its Algiers correspondent Khaled Drareni. Rights groups have "targeted" Algeria "to sap...
Algeria: Former cop who joined anti-regime protests sent to prison
A former Algerian policeman who joined the country's protest movement was sentenced on Thursday to two years in jail, a prisoners' rights group said. Toufik Hassani was convicted of "threatening police agents" and "divulging professional secrets on Facebook",...
Economy: Plethora of problems are hitting Algerian winemakers hard
Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria - Algerian winemaker Dahmane Hamamouche used to rise early and rush to work each morning, but he no longer bothers, as his firm chokes on a cocktail of woes. Long accustomed to nasty surprises including unpredictable weather patterns and...
Algeria: United Nations independent experts pressuring Algeria to release wrongly jailed journalist
A journalist jailed for his coverage of mass protests in Algeria must be released, United Nations independent experts said on Wednesday. Khaled Drareni was jailed for two years on Tuesday as a crackdown on dissent intensifies after a year of anti-government...
Companies: Series of blunders result in millions of dollars of losses to Algeria oil firm Sonatrach ($)
After the disastrous oil leaks last week that took place on one of its pipelines in El-Oued and the problems that prompted a halt in activity in the LNG facilities in Skikda and Arzew on 7 September, Sonatrach experienced an explosion that reportedly damaged a large...
Algeria: Government-controlled court sentences journalist Drareni to two years in prison
Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni was jailed for two years on appeal Tuesday, a defence lawyer said, in a case seen as a barometer of press freedom in the North African country. Drareni, 40, has been in custody since March and was sentenced in August to three years...
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