The National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD) in Algeria announced that 23 demonstrators, arrested on April 3 in Algiers and taken into custody, are on hunger strike.
In a statement, the CNLD thus specified that several demonstrators, arrested during a march in Algiers, were all placed under arrest warrant except two of them, a minor and the other for medical reasons, noting that these demonstrators are being prosecuted for “undermining national unity, unarmed assembly and inciting unarmed assembly”.
The decision to detain the demonstrators, arrested during the marches last Saturday, provoked outrage and dismay among Hirak activists who held rallies in front of the two courts concerned in Algiers during the presentations.
Last Wednesday, the human rights NGO, Amnesty International, which painted a blackboard of the human rights situation in Algeria in 2020, stressed that all those detained simply for expressing their views peacefully must be released immediately. and unconditionally.
In her latest report on the situation of human rights in the world in 2020/21, she lamented the fact that dozens of prisoners of conscience continue to languish in prison for having expressed their opinion, especially on social networks.
“From February 19 to 25, 2021, 59 people arbitrarily arrested for expressing their opinions or demonstrating peacefully were released. Others are still in detention only for having participated in the Hirak or for publications on social networks criticizing the authorities, ”regretted the organization.
For its part, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had demanded that the Algerian authorities immediately cease violence against peaceful demonstrators and also put an end to arbitrary detentions.
He also called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all those arbitrarily arrested or detained for their alleged support for Hirak” and “drop all charges against them”.
