Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune signed the presidential decree promulgating the new extradition agreement between Algeria and France. French President Emmanuel Macron promulgated this convention in March.
While this convention was concluded in 2019, the year in which Abdelmadjd Tebboune was elected president, it does not come into full force until the two heads of state have promulgated it and the text has been published in the Journal. (or Bulletin) Official.
If for France, it is above all a question of guaranteeing the non-application of the death sentences by Algiers, on the Algerian side, Abdelmadjid Tebboune hopes that France will agree to extradite certain Algerian public figures exiled in France for fear of reprisals on the part of of the military regime.
Indeed, the Algerian power which tries to silence all the dissonant voices in Algeria, by flouting the freedoms to demonstrate, to meet, to have a political activity, or to exercise his profession of journalist or political scientist, however, has never been able to get hold of certain people, the most virulent, those who speak with the most freedom.
And if these people have this freedom to express themselves, to speak without filters or censorship of events in Algeria, it is precisely because they live outside the constant repression exercised by the Algerian authorities. And it is this outspokenness that has earned them immense notoriety. A disturbing celebrity at the Mouradia Palace and in the arcana of Algerian military power.
But if the convention signed by France and Algeria indicates that “the parties undertake to engage each other reciprocally, according to the rules and under the conditions established by (the) convention, the persons prosecuted or convicted by their competent judicial authorities” , extradition is not done automatically for all detainees.
Excluded from the extradition lists are cases where “the offense for which it was requested is considered by the requested party as a political offense or related to a political offense”, as is the case for these pro-Hirak bloggers, the popular movement for independence and rejection of the Algerian system.
The cases which “will not be considered as political offenses:“ the attack on the life, the physical integrity of a head of state or the members of his family ”,“ the offenses, in particular those of a terrorist nature, in respect of which the parties have the obligation, under a multilateral agreement, to extradite the requested person or to bring the case before their competent authorities so that they decide on the procedure to be followed ”, indicates the convention.
He added that if the requested party has serious grounds for believing that the extradition request was presented with a view to prosecuting or punishing the requested person on account of his race, sex, nationality or political opinions or that the situation of that person is likely to be aggravated for one of these reasons ”, the extradition will not take place.
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