In Post-Hirak Algeria, ‘Le Pouvoir’ Has Survived

Algerians march with a national flag, marking the anniversary of the Hirak movement. [Getty]

BISKRA - ALGERIA, As an Algerian citizen driving his car on September 4th, 2022, I suddenly got pulled over by a police officer on the periphery of a security checkpoint. Our talk soon escalated into a kerfuffle that was precipitated by my use of my iPhone to record the conversation. The next thing I knew was my car being surrounded by four other officers, I being ordered to exit the vehicle, my phone being confiscated from me and then being manhandled and taken to the police station where I spent the next five hours being questioned, without a lawyer present, no right to a phone call and having multiple times being ordered to unlock my phone, under tacit coercion and without a search warrant, I might add. Despite having no legal charges being presented against me, and being let go afterward, after being ordered to erase the recorded video, of course, that day made me wonder about what kind of country I was living in and whether things had changed in the North African state. For better or worse, that was a day of personal awakening. 

During filming, which is NOT a crime under any Algerian law, I made clear that I had all my papers on me. The reasons for me being ordered the exit the vehicle was my use of my phone to record the interaction with the officer, for both of our safety.

Ever since its independence from France in 1962, the Algerian government had taken an inconspicuous Soviet tone. However, the 2019 peaceful uprising, known as ‘The Hirak’, brought renewed hopes and dreams of a ‘New Alegria’, one where the dignity of the individual is respected, where civil liberties are protected and exercised, and where the President is nothing more than a public servant. Ostensibly, the uprising had managed to bring about change by ousting former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from office, along with several of his henchmen. Yet the mechanisms and pillars that brought him and sustained him in office for two decades continued, something that was shown by the return of some of the figures of the previous regime to power, chief among them is the new president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune. By observing the current and post-Hirak political climate in Algeria and contemplating that in parallel with my own experience with the security apparatus of this country, I could not help but wonder: Is Algeria a police state? The likely answer is YES.

‘‘There has been a steady and severe deterioration in the situation of civil liberties in Algeria since the Hirak,’’ said Nasser Jabi, a professor of political sociology at the University of Algiers and a visiting professor at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. ‘‘This is what we have been seeing in Algeria,’’ he added, ‘‘journalists and citizens being thrown in prison for merely expressing their dissent on social media.’’

The Long & Crooked Blue

          A police state is defined as a country where the government exerts extreme levels of control over civil bodies and people through the overbearing presence of police forces, which play a heightened role in governance. Restrictions on freedom of movement, freedom to express or communicate political or other views (religious and philosophical ones), a strict censorship system, and extensive secrecy are potent. The national police organization tends to operate outside constitutional boundaries due to the dearth or absence of distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive. Following this definition, the elements that comprise a police state are:

1.     Overbearing Presence of Police Forces;

2.     Freedom of Movement, lack thereof;

3.     Freedom of Speech & expression, lack thereof;

4.     Media Censorship;

5.     Independence of the judiciary, lack thereof.

One only has to take a short drive around any Algerian city or take an interstate trip to feel the choking presence of the security apparatus in everyday life. Random police checkpoints can be placed at any moment, at any place, with the officers having formidable authority to stop passing cars and vehicles. Legal concepts such as ‘reasonable suspicion’ and ‘probable cause’ are absent from the Algerian jurisprudence. As you attempt to travel from one state to another, or even from one municipality to another, you can expect a 24/7 security checkpoint, you being ordered to pull over, the trunk of your car being searched, and you being questioned as to where you are coming from or where you are headed to. This heavy hand of the police can also be felt by tourists who come to the country and observe such a daunting shadow. During his visit to Algeria in 2024, French filmmaker Antoin De Maximy experienced firsthand what it is like to be a citizen in Algeria. De Maximy was followed by security guards, asked for permits to film every now and then, and was banned from traveling to the desert alone. 

24h checkpoints have become an integral part of Algerians' daily life, when it should not have. Photo by Farouk Batiche/AFP/Getty Images

In addition to having omnipresent police, Algeria’s security organizations, including the gendarmerie, enjoy potent impunity in the face of potential crimes against their citizenry. Exposing crimes committed by police officers through visual-audio documentation more often than not is a crime under Article 149 bis 21 that is related to ‘‘harming ‘the image of the security services and their agents,’’ as Mr. Youcef Ouled Dada, an Algerian computer technician, found out when a court sentenced him to two years in prison for filming and posting a video of three police officers looting during riots that took place in the city of Ghardaia. The charges were ‘‘publishing photographs and videos which harm the national interest’’ and ‘‘contempt for the authorities.’’

A Muted Society

‘‘Authorities have detained people just for peacefully expressing their opinions, including journalists and citizens penalized for social media posts.’’

-Amnesty International, Sept 20th, 2023.

Algerians have always suffered from the constant and stifling muzzle that former governments put on their mouths. The post-Hirak government came to remind them that the norm is still the rule. Whether it is ordinary citizens or media outlets, criticizing, ridiculing, or ‘‘insulting’’ the President, military, or any governmental agency or official can land you in prison, based on provisions of the Algerian penal code such as article 148 bis 1 and 149 bis 21 which include crimes related to insulting symbols of ‘the national liberation movement’ and harming ‘the image of the security services and their agents,’ said the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.    

‘‘Algerian authorities are engaged in an unrelenting assault on independent media and all critical voices,’’ expressed Amnesty International in its article titled, ‘A Society Behind Bars,’ ‘‘typically using bogus charges such as ‘spreading fake news’ and ‘offending public officials,’ ’’ the article added.  Therefore, voicing the mere dissenting opinion to the policies, behavior, or actions of the President, Parliament, or military has now become a source of trepidation and dismay to both ordinary citizens, the media, and political opponents. The social media campaign, ‘‘Manich_Radi,’’ or ‘‘I am not Satisfied,’’ at the end of 2024, which saw Algerians taking to social media platforms like X to express their discontent and resentment with the declining economic situation and the ongoing arrests of journalists and activists, coupled with the ensuing wave of arrests and subpoenas, provided an evident example of a people still dreaming of a better future and a septuagenarian regime bent or preserving a dead past.

Finally, academics and intellectuals represent the fourth category that is silenced under an increasingly watchful security state. This was shown recently when the Algerian regime arrested two prominent academics: French Algerian author Boualem Sansal and Algerian historian Mohamed El-Amine Belghith.

Professor Mohamed El Amin Belghith during his controversial interview with Sky News Arabia

Sansal, who was arrested upon his arrival in Algiers on 16 November, has been sentenced to five years in prison for ‘‘undermining the country’s territorial integrity,’’ pertaining to his comments to the French Far-Right media outlet, Frontiers, where he stated that parts of today’s Algeria were once Moroccan territory that was carved out by Colonial France. Sansal’s arrest and indictment were obtained under Algeria’s new anti-terrorism laws, which were invoked in the aftermath of the Hirak. ‘‘Attempting to gain power or change the system of governance by unconstitutional means,’’ is the definition of terrorism given by the Algerian government. This definition is neither of any plausible logical ground for such a concept nor is it applicable to Sansal’s case, yet elusive enough to instill fear into the hearts of those who want to take a legitimate stand of dissent.

Professor Belghith, a renowned historian in Algerian academic circles, fell out of favor with the country’s higherups when his comments on Amazigh identity cause a level of uproar among segments of the Algerian society. During his interview with Sky News Arabia, Belghith claimed that ‘‘The Amazigh issue is […] a political project aimed at undermining Maghreb unity in service of a French agenda promoting a Francophone North Africa.’’ He then went on to add that, as Algerians, ‘‘Our roots trace back to the Phoenician Canaanites.’’ Following the public backlash to such comments, the authorities chose to place the Algerian historian under pre-trial detention on several charges, including ‘‘acts targeting national unity,’’ and ‘‘disseminating hate speech and discrimination using information technology,’’ according to Al-Watan Newspaper.

A Lost Opportunity, A New Hope

          As Algerians continue to survive throughout Tebboune’s second term, a reflection on the past and an aspiration for the future seem to be in progress. The euphoria that rose in the wake of the Hirak’s ostensible achievements has been dissipated by the grim reality of an even more autocratic system. ‘‘The change was more about figureheads than it was about institutions,’’ said Prof. Jabi, as ‘‘It did not touch on the relationship between the militant and the civilian, which was the main goal of the protests.’’ As such, it is unfortunate that the people of Algeria failed to capitalize on the momentum and scale of their protests and allowed themselves to be fooled by sham elections while relinquishing their right to liberty and prosperity for ‘stability and security.’ Now, they have neither.

          However, as the country marches closer by the day toward the upcoming presidential elections, one which Tebboune will supposedly not have the right to run for after his two terms, it is yet to see what will happen in the four-year timeframe. Algerians now have a renowned hope in the unknown, one that is contingent on their ability to learn from their 2019 mishaps and mobilize their collective mind toward choosing a better course for their country. There will be times when that struggle seems impossible, when the Algerian citizen is dwarfed by the scale of the system, but freedom is a pure idea as it occurs spontaneously and without instruction. On the other hand, tyranny requires constant effort; authority can and is brittle; and oppression has always been the fragile mask of fear.