Algeria refuses to free Salafist prisoners

The Algerian government refuted rumors that the president would release thousands of Islamists.

By Walid Ramzi for Magharebia in Algiers – 03/06/11

Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia "categorically" denied that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was planning to pardon thousands of Islamists to mark the anniversary of independence in July.

A number of Islamist leaders, including Hachemi Sahnouni, a founder of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), claimed in mid-May that Bouteflika would "sign a presidential decree releasing Islamist prisoners on the next suitable national occasion, especially those who were detained in early 1990s".

"The news is being confirmed day after day," Sahnouni stated, adding that the amnesty would not apply to those who were involved with mass murders, rapes, or planting explosives in public places. He said that July 5th, the 49th anniversary of Algeria's independence, was likely the best occasion to announce such a decision.

The prime minister on May 29th dismissed "this rumor", all the while maintaining that "the state's hand is still extended to the people who are still outside the right path". Ouyahia also denied that there were 4,000 Islamists imprisoned in connection with charges of terrorism, saying that their number doesn't exceed 400.

Algerian Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz said at a May 25th parliamentary session that no pardon was being considered for prisoners convicted in connection with terrorist cases.

In response to these statements, Sahnouni and known Islamist figure Abd El Fattah Zeraoui Hamadache sent a message to the president urging him to go ahead with his planned release of Islamist prisoners, which the message called a "historical achievement of reconciliation".

In their address, the two sheikhs expressed their belief that the solution to the long-standing crisis in Algeria cannot rely on security measures alone. "If it had been so, problems would have been solved a long time ago," they said, pointing to "ideological issues, ethnic disputes and political conflicts".

"The crisis is deeply-rooted and … partial, patched-up solutions are not a comprehensive solution; rather, they are only temporary sedatives to clam souls," they wrote.

Former FIS leaders decided a while ago to form a committee under the name, "Initiative and Proposal Committee for National Reconciliation". The committee received many messages from Islamist prisoners in which they vowed never to return to armed action and demanded pardon from the president of republic. Some of these messages were forwarded to the presidency in an attempt to convince him to comprehensively pardon prisoners who were not involved in mass murders and rapes.

Marwan Azzi, head of the legal assistance unit for implementing the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, noted that a comprehensive pardon would need extremely complex procedures. According to him, they would deal with the outstanding conditions of many groups, including children who were born in the mountains, raped women, victims of preventative imprisonment, and those who were acquitted but didn't receive financial compensation, as well as desert detainees.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/06/03/feature-01.