Algeria alleges foreign plot to sabotage presidential election

Algerian elections staff count ballots for parliamentary elections at a polling station in Bouchaoui, on the western outskirts of the capital Algiers, on June 12, 2021 [RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images]

The Algerian Ministry of Defence accused “hostile foreign intelligence services” on Wednesday of plotting to carry out “terrorist operations” in the country through the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK) with the aim of sabotaging the upcoming presidential election. Algeria is preparing to hold an early election on 7 September.

The ministry statement was accompanied by photographs of two people accused of involvement in the plot, as well as weapons and ammunition that had been seized while being “smuggled into the country via a foreign ship that arrived in the province of Bejaia” from Marseille.

According to the ministry, Algeria’s joint security services at the port of Bejaia arrested a man named as Zaidi Moussa and his wife on 4 August. He is said to have been in possession of “a quantity of firearms and ammunition, a sum of hard currency and other items” that were hidden in his vehicle that arrived on the ship.

During investigations, Moussa apparently confessed to his involvement with the MAK, which Algeria designated as a terrorist organisation in 2021. The head of the MAK met members of the British government in June, as well as Lord Stuart Polak, the honorary president of Conservative Friends of Israel.

“Moussa has also confessed that the seized weapons had been purchased and smuggled into Algeria by the active MAK cells in France,” claimed the ministry. “The plan was to transport these weapons, then distribute them to members of secret MAK cells to use them in potential terrorist operations.”

The accused is also said to have confessed that foreign intelligence services hostile to Algeria are complicit in this operation which aims to destabilise security in order to obstruct the smooth running of the presidential election.

Algerian security services have also arrested 19 other members of the terrorist network, and seized another significant quantity of weapons from an unlicensed weapons repair workshop on the outskirts of Bejaia. All 21 suspects have been transferred to the competent judicial authorities to initiate investigation procedures.

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