Alkarama has filed a complaint with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concerning the expulsion and arbitrary detention of Mohamed Abdellah. This former sergeant of the Darak el Watani (national gendarmerie) became a whistleblower by exposing serious cases of corruption within the Algerian military.
In November 2018, facing threats and pressures from his superiors, Mohamed Abdellah decided to leave Algeria and the army, seeking refuge in Spain with his family. There, he continued his whistleblowing activities and applied for asylum, hoping for protection under Spanish rule of law.
However, his hope was shattered when the Spanish government expedited his illegal expulsion to Algeria on August 21, 2021, handing him over to military intelligence agents at the infamous Ben Aknoun detention center without providing him with the right to challenge the legality of the process before a court of law. He is currently imprisoned in the military prison of Blida, facing over 17 prosecutions for the same facts before both civil and military courts, and has recently been sentenced to life imprisonment for treason by the Blida military tribunal.
While the violations committed by the Algerian authorities against Mohamed Abdellah are clear, Alkarama's complaint highlights the importance of recognising Spain's role in these violations. In the name of counter-terrorism cooperation, which has been instrumentalised by the authorities for economic gain, Spain has allowed the Algerian authorities to criminalise peaceful criticism on its territory.
From Spain's Discriminatory Denial of International Protection to Algeria's Arbitrary Life Sentence by a Military Court
As a sergeant in the national gendarmerie, assigned to aerial surveillance, Mohamed Abdellah witnessed massive smuggling activities at the borders, which he reported to his superiors. The threats he received if he continued to mention these illegal activities revealed that these operations, including drug trafficking, were widely covered by his hierarchy.
After fleeing to Spain and seeking asylum, he continued to publicly denounce corruption and abuses committed by high-ranking officials and commanders, becoming a symbol of the fight against corruption in Algeria and the Hirak, regularly appearing on independent television panels.
This public commitment made him a target in Spain for reprisals and intimidation by Algerian agents, as well as media attacks by pro-government press accusing him of harming the country's security and stability and the army's reputation. He was threatened and eventually physically assaulted in Alicante, forcing him to relocate to protect his family.
On 11 August 2021, while reporting a change of address to the asylum service in Vitoria, Mohamed Abdellah was informed of the rejection of his asylum application and placed in administrative detention. According to administrative decisions obtained by Alkarama, the rejection of his asylum application was the result of a complaint by the General Information Commission - the Spanish secret service - which, following a secret and non-adversarial investigation, accused him of being a threat to Spain's security and its relations with Algeria.
Defying the appeals of his lawyers, who cited the real and personal risk of torture if he were handed over to the Algerian military authorities, he was secretly and expeditiously deported to Algeria on 21 August 2021, before being given the right to challenge the legality of the process in a court of law.
On arrival in Algeria, he was handed over to the military intelligence, held incommunicado in Ben Aknoun and subjected to severe ill-treatment. He was brought before the public prosecutor on 23 August 2021, placed in pre-trial detention in Koléa prison and then transferred to Blida military prison on 11 October 2021, where he is currently being held.
Whether it is his internment and "preferential" expulsion, or the torture and judicial persecution he faces in Algeria, with more than 17 trials for the same facts, Mohamed Abdellah's case illustrates the export of the criminalisation of the peaceful Algerian opposition abroad. He has not been given the opportunity to defend himself. Alkarama stressed that the stigmatisation of Muslims as a threat to public security in Europe served as a pretext for the Spanish administration to extradite an opponent without due process to a country with which important economic and trade negotiations were underway.
An Illegal and Expedited Expulsion by Spain Leaving No Chance for the Whistleblower to Defend Himself
The arrest and expedited expulsion of Mohamed Abdellah by the Spanish authorities were not based on an official extradition request or an international arrest warrant issued by Algeria. It appears that the Spanish authorities acted following an unofficial request from Algerian intelligence services to their Spanish counterparts.
Thus, both the internment and expulsion of Mohamed Abdellah in Spain were carried out on the basis of a secret, non-adversarial administrative procedure without effective judicial oversight. Spanish law allows the Government to expel any foreign person accused by the secret services of "participating in activities contrary to national security, harming Spain's relations with other countries, or being involved in activities contrary to public order."
However, an examination of the internment and expulsion decisions reveals that he was not accused of any specific offence other than being in contact with foreign opponents, including Mohamed Larbi Zitout, a former diplomat and founder of the RACHAD political movement. The Spanish administrative authorities simply repeated, without critical examination, the accusations of "terrorism" or "Islamism" used by the Algerian authorities to discredit and criminalise any peaceful criticism or opposition at home and abroad.
Alkarama stressed that the facts described to justify the expulsion were vague and either materially false or contradictory, showing that the administrative authorities had not taken the necessary care to verify the allegations made by their Algerian counterparts. It is believed that if Mohamed Abdellah's expulsion had been carried out by way of extradition, it is likely that a judge would have refused to proceed, given the lack of both factual and legal grounds to prosecute Mohamed Abdellah.
Instead, the method of expulsion chosen by the Spanish authorities, through an accelerated administrative procedure that did not allow the decision to be challenged before a judge, was designed to deprive the whistleblower of any effective legal protection. The Spanish authorities thus demonstrated their willingness to cooperate with Algerian requests, deliberately ignoring the risks of torture and inhuman treatment to which Mohamed Abdellah was exposed.
Ultimately, by choosing to accept Algeria's allegations of terrorism or Islamism without critical or independent examination, Spain effectively extended Algeria's criminalisation of peaceful opposition on its territory by qualifying Mohamed Abdellah's activities as either a threat to national security or a threat to Algerian-Spanish relations. This combination makes it difficult to determine whether an asylum-seeking foreigner is being expelled because he or she poses a real security risk to Spain or because he or she is likely to 'damage' relations with his or her home country, however authoritarian it may be.
Serious breaches of Mohamed Abdellah's fundamental rights and safeguards and judicial persecution in Algeria
Upon his arrival in Algeria, Mohamed Abdellah was held in secret detention without any legal basis. He was handed over to the Algerian intelligence services and detained in Ben Aknoun, a place known for its use of torture. His detention continued without access to his lawyers and without the possibility of challenging the legality of his detention, and none of the 17 trials against him meet international fair trial standards.
From the moment he arrived in Algeria, Mohamed Abdellah was subjected to severe ill-treatment, including physical and psychological torture. He was held incommunicado, cut off from all contact with the outside world and subjected to inhuman and degrading conditions of detention. This violent treatment was aimed at forcing him to make false statements against himself and other Algerian political opponents, in order to reinforce the repression of any form of dissent.
Recently sentenced to life imprisonment by the military tribunal in Blida, he is currently the only detainee in the military prison who has been deprived of any telephone contact with his wife and children who remain in Spain.
Alkarama has therefore asked the WGAD to urgently examine Mohamed Abdellah's case and to call on the Algerian authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally. It also urged the Spanish authorities to recognise their responsibility in this matter and to take measures to investigate the circumstances of the expulsion and to prevent such violations in the future.
For further information, please contact us at info@alkarama.org