Algeria issues 'terrorism' warrants for exiled activists

ALGIERS: A court in Algeria issued arrest warrants Sunday for outspoken exiled activists, accusing a former diplomat, a blogger and a journalist of seeking to turn a protest movement to violence.

The warrants come as Algeria's anti-government protesters, the Hirak movement, are boosting weekly rallies ahead of June elections.

The warrants target former diplomat Mohamed Larbi Zeitout, blogger Amir Boukhors, who writes under the name "Amir Dz", and journalist Hichem Aboud.

Zeitout, 57, who founded the outlawed Islamist movement Rachad in 2007, lives in exile in Britain.

Rachad is accused of gathering former militants from the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) to infiltrate the pro-democracy Hirak protest movement and lead it to violence.

Zeitout is wanted on charges of the "management and financing of a terrorist group", as well as forgery and money laundering, according to the official APS news agency.

Boukhors, 38, has released several videos critical of the government, while Aboud, 65, reported to be a former member of the Algerian secret services, was sentenced last year in absentia to seven years in prison.

Both Boukhors and Aboud are based in France and face charges of membership in a "terrorist group targeting state security" as well as money laundering, the statement said, without mentioning the name of the group.

An arrest warrant was also issued for a fourth man, named as Mohamed Abdellah, about whom little is known, on similar charges as Boukhors and Aboud.

Another man, Ahmed Mansouri, a former Islamist activist and ex-FIS member arrested last month, was ordered to held in detention ahead of his trial. 

According to the statement, "technical investigations" had shown that Mansouri, Aboud, Boukhors and Abdelleh were part of a plan to exploit Hirak protesters to shift it from its "peaceful character".

Hirak protesters began demonstrating in February 2019 over then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in office.

Recently it has held demonstrations demanding a sweeping overhaul of a ruling system in place since Algeria's independence from France in 1962.