Algerian authorities are increasingly resorting to broadly worded terrorism-related charges to prosecute journalists, human rights defenders and political activists and to criminalize two political organizations by labelling them as “terrorists” in a new clampdown on dissent, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
In June, the authorities amended the definition of “terrorism” to allow the prosecution of peaceful activists and critical voices, it noted on its website.
Journalists Hassan Bouras and Mohamed Mouloudj are the latest to be subjected to this alarming new trend, it said, adding that they both face potential prosecution for several charges.
These include their online publications criticizing the authorities and their affiliation with two organizations, the unregistered political opposition group, Rachad, and the group Movement for the Self-determination of the Kabylie (MAK).
Amnesty International called on the Algerian authorities to immediately release the journalists and drop these “unfounded” charges against them.
“It is abhorrent to see those seeking to exercise their right to freedom of expression prosecuted in such a systematic way,” it stressed.
