The Algiers administrative court on Wednesday (October 13th) pronounced the dissolution of the Rassemblement Actions Jeunesse (RAJ), an NGO which had been at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement Hirak, AFP learned from the Algerian League for the Defense of human rights (LADDH).
“
The administrative court pronounces the dissolution of RAJ.
It is scandalous
”, lamented to AFP Saïd Salhi, vice-president of LADDH.
Read alsoThe Islamist shadow hangs over the Algerian Hirak
"
Stop the attacks against the democratic gains of the Algerian people, paid at the price of the ultimate sacrifice
", added Saïd Salhi, who expressed the "
solidarity
" of the LADDH with the militants of RAJ.
This decision follows a request from the Interior Ministry calling for the dissolution of RAJ, which has existed for 28 years.
He was accused of “
acting in violation of the law on associations and in contradiction with the objectives listed in the statutes
”.
A control of associations by power
In a
press
release published at the end of September, RAJ rejected these accusations "
based essentially on the public activities of the association during the Hirak
". On the contrary, the NGO qualified its various actions as "
compatible
" with "
its mandate as an association working to promote the involvement of young people in the management of the city
".
Several members of RAJ, including its president Abdelouahab Fersaoui, 39, have been prosecuted and up to nine of them have been imprisoned. Sentenced to one year in prison for "
attacking the integrity of the national territory
", Abdelouahab Fersaoui served six months in prison between the end of 2019 and May 2020, which corresponded to the sentence handed down on appeal. The LADDH "
calls for respect for the right and freedoms of association and organization, the cornerstone of any democracy,
" said Saïd Salhi.
The Algerian law governing the work of associations, promulgated in 2012, makes their creation subject to prior approval by the authorities.
This law was approved as part of political reforms by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, recently deceased, to cut short any contagion from the Arab Spring in 2011. The opposition and human rights activists then denounced a strengthening text, according to them, state hegemony over civil society.
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