Human Rights Abuses in Algeria

The Algerian government and the armed Islamist opposition it is fighting are each responsible for a severe deterioration in human rights conditions. This report highlights three areas of abuse: the grossly unfair trials before Special Courts that over the past ten months have resulted in nearly 400 death sentences for suspected Islamist militants; the deliberate killing of civilians by the armed resistance; and an assault on press freedom from two directions — heavy-handed government restrictions and violence by the armed opposition.