Algeria frees former spy chief jailed during mass protests

An Algerian military appeals court on Saturday acquitted three top officials who were jailed in 2019 during mass protests, Reuters reported quoting sources close to the officials.

The three – two former security chiefs and the younger brother of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika – were given 15-year prison sentences in September 2019 on charges of conspiracy against the state.

Their jailing marked an apparent success for the “Hirak” mass protest movement that took to the streets in early 2019, pushing the army to oust Bouteflika in April that year after 20 years in office.

But many in Hirak said their uprising had not yet achieved its goals of ousting the old ruling elite, forcing the army from politics and ending corruption when the coronavirus pandemic stopped their weekly protests last March.

Read: Algeria court sentences Bouteflika’s alleged daughter to 12 years in prison

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, elected in December 2019 in a vote the protesters decried as a sham, has sought to placate Hirak by praising the movement as a moment of national renewal and introducing some constitutional changes.

But many supporters of the leaderless Hirak movement rejected those moves as merely cosmetic change despite the senior status of some of those imprisoned.

“We still want a radical change of the whole regime,” said Rachid Hamani, a Hirak figure.

Mohamed Mediene, who enjoyed vast power as a secretive security chief known to his compatriots by the nickname Tewfic, was freed by Saturday’s acquittal. “The military justice rejected the plot theory against Tewfic. This is good,” a source close to Mediene said. His less influential successor, Bachir Tartag, as well as Said Bouteflika, younger brother of the former president, were also acquitted but remain in prison pending corruption charges in a civilian court, the sources said.

Dozens of other figures close to Bouteflika, including prominent business leaders and less powerful officials, remain in prison.

Read: Algeria jails journalist amid crackdown on Hirak movement