Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression regarding the arbitrary arrest of Abdullah Benaoum, prosecuted and brought before the Relizane Court after his attempt to denounce the discriminatory measures taken by the Chancellor of the University of Relizane against some Law students.
Founding member of the Movement RAFD (Refusal), Benaoum has been regularly persecuted and subjected to legal reprisals because of his political commitment and reporting of human rights violations. In 2012, he was sentenced to six months of deprivation of liberty after he denounced the prosecution of young peaceful demonstrators.
A group of students arbitrarily excluded from the Law Master, visited the Chancellor's office, together with Benaoum, to deliver a petition denouncing this unwarranted decision. The President reacted violently, grabbing the petition from Benaoum's hands, before physically assaulting him under the eyes of the students.
The students' representative then published a video on social networks in which he denounced the Chancellor's arbitrary practices. Following this incident, on 20 November 2014, Benaoum was summoned to the local police. There, he was arrested and directly taken to court where the public prosecutor charged with "contempt of an established body corporate" for having allegedly insulted the University's Chancellor.
The trial was held on 24 November 2014, in room packed with numerous students and human rights defenders, including representatives of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) who came from across the country to express their solidarity with Benaoum and to denounce the Algerian authorities for their repressive practices.
Despite the absence of any evidence or material element essential to justify a criminal sanction, the Relizane Court sentenced the victim to a three-month suspended prison term, a decision welcomed with irony by the public who was already expecting to see the justice system endorsing, as usual, the administration or security services' practices.
Alkarama remains concerned about the situation of human rights defenders and the violations and other reprisals against them, and calls on the Algerian authorities to put an end to such practices.
For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1007 Ext: 810)