Algerian opponent Rachid Nekkaz, released in January following a presidential pardon granted in exchange for his renunciation of playing politics, announced that Abdelmadjid Tebboune had ordered the lifting of the ban on traveling to the United States. United, where his family is, for treatment.
“After 1,200 days of imprisonment, house arrest and ban on leaving the territory, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune finally ordered the lifting of the ban on leaving the national territory imposed on Rachid Nekkaz since 2019”, wrote the opponent in a letter received on Saturday by AFP.
Incarcerated since May 2021, Rachid Nekkaz had already been imprisoned from December 2019 to February 2021 for in particular “inciting violence through social networks”. He had been harassed by the Algerian power at each of his public appearances, receiving blows and injuries. His state of health has deteriorated considerably since his detention in inhumane conditions.
Mr Nekkaz was forced to publicly thank President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for responding to a message he sent last week “asking him to intervene personally, so that he can leave the country legally and undergo surgery as soon as possible “.
In his letter, the opponent specified that he was notably suffering from a serious eye disease and prostate cancer.
He was released on January 18 for “humanitarian reasons” after being sentenced to five years in prison in July 2022 for calling for a boycott of the 2019 presidential election.
His release came two weeks after the announcement of his abandonment of political life in a letter written from his cell and given to his relatives.
His French wife campaigned for a long time to obtain his release, but despite the agreement to renounce politics that he was forced to sign in exchange for his release, Rachid Nekkaz was banned from leaving Algerian territory. .
In this letter published on January 2 on Facebook, he wrote that he had “resigned by force of circumstance to stopping politics in Algeria”. He added that “from now on to devote himself exclusively to the resolution of his health problems, to writing and to his family (…) selfishly abandoned in the United States for 10 years”.