“The face-to-face between France and Algeria has just moved to a higher level”notes the European edition of Politico. “The French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, accused Algeria on Friday of wanting to ‘humiliate’ France by refusing to accept an Algerian national expelled from French territory by Paris”explains the information site.
The individual in question, a 59-year-old influencer using the pseudonym Doualemn, was returned to his home country on Thursday “after being arrested for sharing videos on TikTok calling on his supporters to attack a critic of the Algerian regime. The videos have since been deleted”continues Politico. But instead of welcoming him, Algiers “just sent him away” towards France.
“A decision that does not pass muster in Paris”observe the site All about Algeria (TSA). “We have reached an extremely worrying threshold with Algeria”estimated Mr. Retailleau, “while the right and the extreme right, who have been pushing for months towards rupture, are demanding tougher measures against Algeria”notes the site.
“Precipitous” expulsion
“I think France cannot tolerate this situation”also declared the minister, calling for “evaluate all the means that are at our disposal vis-à-vis Algeria” pour “defend our interests”.
Doualemn was arrested on January 4, recalls TSA. “He is accused in particular of having called for the beating of an individual considered to be an Algerian opponent, as well as of calling for hatred. Other influencers like Imad Tintin, Youssef Zazou and Sofia Benlemane were also arrested.After “the distribution of unacceptable videos on social networks”specifies the site.
The influencer had been placed in an administrative detention center, pending his trial scheduled for January 24, “but the Minister of the Interior issued an expulsion order” against him.
The French government has “precipitated his expulsion” to prevent her “can be examined by a judge”, thundered his lawyer Jean-Baptiste Mousset, cited by The Morning of Algeriadenouncing the “exceptional means” implemented for “gag” son client.
“Political-media war”
“The story is even more scandalous because nothing justified his expulsion from French territory”adds L’Expressionclose to the Algerian power. “His remaining on the territory did not represent any risk”attest the influencer’s lawyers. Especially since“no placement under judicial supervision” and that“no request to a judge of freedoms with a view to his provisional incarceration” were not requested by the public prosecutor after his arrest, they assure.
Two-timbered “seems to be only a victim of the ‘political-media war’ that France is waging against Algeria”, estimates the daily. “This affair has unmasked the ‘thinking head’ of this ‘dirty war’. In all likelihood, it is the French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau. He went so far as to flout French justice”accuses the Algerian title.
The Morning of Algeria note that this affair is part “in a climate of tension between the two countries against the backdrop of Emmanuel Macron’s support for the Moroccan plan for Western Sahara and the arrest of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal”.
And to conclude: “The final sequence of verbal warfare makes us wonder: how far will they take us? A total break in diplomatic relations as desired by the far right in France and the Islamo-Baathist movement in Algeria? ”.
