Algeria has recalled its envoy to France "for consultations" after Paris intervened to help Amira Bouraoui, an activist and journalist who is wanted by Algiers, avoid deportation and detention.
Bouraoui had been arrested in Tunisia on Friday and risked being deported to Algeria, but she was finally able to board a flight to France on Monday evening.
The case threatens recently mended relations between Algeria and its former coloniser.
In an official statement, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune "firmly protested against the clandestine and illegal exfiltration of an Algerian citizen" via Tunisia to France.
It said that Tebboune had ordered ambassador Said Moussi to be recalled from Paris "with immediate effect".
French passport
A doctor by training, 46-year-old Bouraoui was sentenced in Algeria in May 2021 to two years in jail for "offending Islam" and for insulting the president.
She was not detained, however, pending an appeal.
Bouraoui was subsequently banned from leaving Algeria, and was arrested in Tunisia when trying to board a flight to France, using her French passport.
A judge released her on Monday and she was then taken away by police before obtaining protection from French diplomats in Tunis.
🇩🇿🇫🇷 L'#Algerie a rappelé son ambassadeur en France pour "protester fermement contre “l'exfiltration" qualifiée de "clandestine et d'illégale" de la ressortissante algérienne #AmiraBouraoui vers la France.
— RFI Afrique (@RFIAfrique) February 9, 2023
🎧 Précisions @AmelieTulet #RFIMatin 👇 pic.twitter.com/biEvhL7BBO
'Very unfriendly'
French daily Le Monde reported that she was made welcome at the French embassy in Tunis before being given "President Kais Saied's authorisation to return to France".
Shortly before Ambassador Moussi was recalled on Wednesday, the Algerian foreign ministry said it had sent an official note to the French embassy expressing "the firm condemnation by Algeria of the violation of national sovereignty by diplomatic, consular and security personnel of the French State".
Algeria says the incident had caused "great damage" to Franco-Algerian relations.
On Wednesday, the French-language government newspaper El Moudjahid in an editorial denounced what it called a "very unfriendly" act towards both Algeria and Tunisia.
The article said "This French policy – of one step forward and 10 steps back – throws cold water on bilateral relations a few weeks before the state visit President Tebboune is due to make to France."
Tebboune is scheduled to visit Paris in May, following a January phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Ties between the two countries had been frosty since autumn 2021, but warmed when Macron visited Algiers last August.
To great fanfare, the two presidents signed a declaration on relaunching bilateral cooperation.
Journalist arrested
Bouraoui made a name for herself in 2014 with her involvement in a movement that campaigned against a fourth term for the late president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
She had tried several times in recent months to leave Algeria to visit her son, who lives in France.
Bouraoui had already served a short prison term in Algeria before being provisionally released in July 2020.
On Wednesday on Facebook she thanked all those who made sure that did not find herself "behind bars again".
She wrote that she was not going into exile in France and that she would be "back very soon" in Algeria.
🔈 Algeria 🇩🇿 The journalist #MustaphaBenjamaa, editor of the newspaper Le Provincial, was arrested this Wednesday at the newspaper's offices in Annaba.
— RSF (@RSF_inter) February 8, 2023
RSF denounces these repeated methods of repression against journalists and calls for his immediate release. pic.twitter.com/b1G6x4q0aX
This came as the Algerian authorities arrested the chief editor of local news site Le Provincial, triggering protests from media watchdogs Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Colleagues of Mustapha Bendjama said he has been held in connection with Bouraoui's departure.
(with agencies)
