Algeria charges separatist group for “plotting with Israel”
An Algerian court charges members of a separatist self-determination group for “plotting with Israel”, according to The New Arab.
On 16th January, a first instances court tried the MAK group for “committing terrorist and subversive acts.”
Twenty-four members face penalties of life imprisonment to fifteen years.
The public prosecutor declared MAK had a “considerable quantity of weapons,” and was conspiring “against Algeria…by spreading ideas that encourage division, discrimination, and hatred.”
Although in absentia, founder and leader of MAK, Ferhat Mehenni, has been issued three life imprisonment sentences alongside international arrest warrants by Algeria.
In 2021, Algerian authorities accused MAK for the devastating wildfires in the country. Algeria regards MAK as a terrorist organisation, however, the US State Department has dismissed this claim.
READ: Algeria Fires: Biden’s Refusal to Aid Kabylia
Elisabeth Myers, an attorney representing the Movement for Self-Determination of Kabylia told Maghrebi “Algeria’s charges against MAK are utterly false and unsupported.
“President Ferhat Mehenni of the Kabyle government in exile has refuted Algeria’s baseless and nonsensical charges that MAK ordered the fires that killed many Kabyles and devastated huge swathes of forest and people’s homes in Kabylia.”
Myers elaborates that Mehenni has gathered evidence of Algeria’s own military deliberately igniting the fires with illegal white phosphorous. In further defense of Mehenni, she claims that the MAK leader has filed a petition in the International Criminal Court in Hague and has requested protection from the UN Secretary General against Algeria’s attempted genocide.
Of the twenty-four MAK members on trial, seven including Mehenni are fugitives.
The verdict of the case is expected to be revealed in a matter of days.
The New Arab
