Journalist Khaled Drareni, wearing a mask, leaving Kolea prison, this Friday west of Algiers.RYAD KRAMDI / AFP
The 41-year-old independent journalist Khaled Drareni, a great reference in the coverage of the massive demonstrations that began on February 22, 2019 and obtained the forced resignation of President Abdelaziz Buteflika - after 20 years in power - was released the night this Friday after the announcement of a presidential grace and received as a hero upon leaving prison by dozens of activists.
Drareni is the best known among what the most prestigious humanitarian organizations call "prisoners of opinion" in Algeria, some 70 supporters of Hirak - the peaceful protest movement that remains dormant, demanding a democratic opening.
Drareni was a correspondent in Algeria for the French television channel TV5 Monde, a representative of Reporters Without Borders and founder of the
Casbah Tribune website
.
Through its almost 150,000 followers on Twitter, it managed to become the main source to report on the scope of the demonstrations that challenged power Friday after Friday, until the coronavirus pandemic arrived.
This Friday, after leaving the Kolea prison, in the west of Algiers, Drareni declared in a video filmed inside a car: “Thank you very much to all those who have supported me and who have supported the victims of opinion , because your support is essential for all of us.
And your support is the proof of our innocence ”.
The current head of state, President Abdelmayid Tebún, issued a pardon for dozens of activists on Thursday, some of them with a final sentence and others in preventive detention.
Tebún, had already decreed another acquittal of some 70 prisoners of conscience as soon as he came to power, in December 2019. He said he reached out to Hirak, seeking dialogue.
But the regime continued to imprison dozens of activists, continued to censor internet sites that were great references to follow the mass protests, and maintained blacklists of foreign media that are not allowed to enter the country.
The president has chosen, on this occasion, to grant another gesture towards the Hirak, on the eve of the second anniversary of the movement, which will be celebrated next Monday.
For that day large marches are planned again in Algeria.
The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) issued a statement stating that the release of prisoners of conscience is only "the reparation of an injustice, after several months of arbitrary detention."
The organization indicated that it is still waiting for "more concrete gestures" in the field of freedoms, human rights and democratic openness.