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Algeria: Free Jailed Human Rights Defender
(New York, October 4, 2003) Algerian human rights defender Slaheddine Sidhoum should be freed from prison and guaranteed a fair trial, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Algeria’s minister of justice.


Related Material

Letter to Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz
HRW letter, October 2, 2003



"Slaheddine Sidhoum turned himself in to clear his name. He should be released from jail and, if he is retried, the proceedings this time must be fair and open to all observers."

Joe Stork, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa


 
Sidhoum has been in Serkadji Prison in the capital, Algiers, since Monday when he surrendered to authorities in order to seek a retrial on a 1997 in absentia conviction. At the time of his conviction, grossly unfair trials were the norm for defendants charged with security offenses. Sidhoum, a medical doctor who resides in Algiers, was convicted on charges related to “terrorism or subversion” and sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison. He has spent the last nine years living clandestinely in Algeria.

“Slaheddine Sidhoum turned himself in to clear his name,” said Joe Stork, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “He should be released from jail and, if he is retried, the proceedings this time must be fair and open to all observers.”

Even during his years in hiding, Sidhoum persevered in documenting human rights abuses in his country by detailing alleged cases of torture, summary executions and “disappearances” to journalists, by sending letters to Algeria’s president, and by disseminating reports internationally.

In a letter to Algerian Minister of Justice Tayeb Belaiz, Human Rights Watch urged that Sidhoum be freed pending any trial, that—if he is retried—he be charged with internationally recognizable criminal charges, that the trial take place without undue delay, that it conform to international standards for fairness, and that the proceedings be open to both domestic and international observers.