“Appeasement measures: we want actions and not words. » This January 6, standing in front of a summarily decorated wall, with a determined look but a defeated expression, Soheib Debaghine addresses his followers via social networks, on the promise of the Algerian authorities to relax the reins of repression. This thirty-year-old, with an unkempt beard, indicates that, the day before, plainclothes police officers had tried to arrest him and that he had fled. In this short video, he recalls his commitment to “system change” and assumes its participation in the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasContent, viral on social networks about the situation in the country. He will be arrested the next day in Bejaïa, in Kabylia, while he was with friends.
There are around thirty cases like that of Soheib Debaghine since December 25, 2024, according to lawyers. On Christmas Eve, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune mentioned this hashtag, launched by activists and activists after the fall of Bashar Al Assad in Syria. “If they think they can swallow up the country with a hashtag, they are wrong”declared the head of state. The next day, the Presidency of the Republic announced the famous “appeasement measures” concerning the release of at least 22 prisoners of conscience. To date, only five of them have been released, according to Zakaria Hannache, a whistleblower who has been recording prisoners of conscience since 2019.
16 protesters indicted
At the same time as these releases, the authorities arrested other activists. This is the case of journalist Abdelwakil Blamm. The fifty-year-old, who has multiplied particularly virulent videos against the government in recent months, welcomed the turn of events in Syria and expressed his wish to see the same change in Algeria. Arrested on December 29, a week after being released, Abdelwakil Blamm was placed under arrest warrant for “contacts with terrorists” or even “dissemination of false information likely to harm national unity” by the public prosecutor of the Chéraga court, west of Algiers.
In all, among the protesters, 16 were indicted, four were placed under judicial supervision and the others were released. In the majority of cases, these are young activists from the 2019 Hirak who have already spent several stays in prison, like Souheib Debaghine. “These are young people who have a large following on social networks”says Zakaria Hannache, himself a former detainee who has taken refuge in Canada for several months, from where he follows events in his country.
There are also Islamist militants in the mix. According to judicial sources, they are being prosecuted for “spreading false information” or “harm to the interest of the country” et “to national unity”. Some have already been presented for immediate appearance. One of them was sentenced to two years in prison in Tlemcen, in the west of the country, the others are still awaiting their sentence.
