An Algerian court sentenced four protesters to jail for 18 months for disrupting a presidential election candidate’s campaign for the upcoming December election which is opposed by a mass protest movement, reported Reuters.
On Monday, the court sentenced the four after they protested in the western city of Tlemcen, where one of the five candidates, Ali Benflis, was campaigning on Sunday. The information about the protesters’ exact actions remained unavailable. The protesters are interrupting the campaigning events to express their rejection of the upcoming elections.
The judgment comes a week after a court jailed some protesters who had raised flags with Berber symbols during earlier demonstrations.
The protest movement began in February to demand the departure of long-term president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. But even after Bouteflika’s departure in April, the demonstrations continued demanding the country’s ruling elite, including Interim President Abdelkader Bensalah and Prime Minister Nouredine Bedoui, to step down, an end to corruption and the army’s withdrawal from politics.
The army, which has emerged as the most powerful institution in the country, has pushed for next month’s election as a means to end the protests and restore normality. But the protesters have rejected the presidential election, saying the continued presence of Bouteflika allies in the government means the election cannot be free or fair.
On Tuesday during a visit to the 4th Military Region, southeast Algeria, the Army Chief of Staff Ahmed Gaid Salah reiterated that the army has no political ambitions attached neither to the start of the presidential campaign or the election scheduled next month.
“We are serving our people, with whom we share the same origins, with work and not with words only,” Gaid Salah said. “We have no political ambitions, and no goals other than those serving the best interests of Algeria and its people.”
