Hommam Al Nassim 
The Algerian League for Human Rights condemned the imprisonment of a French-Algerian activist for releasing a song expressing protest against the suppression of freedoms in Algeria.
“Activist and singer Jamila Ben Touiss, a 60-year-old mother of three, has been in provisional detention since she was brought before an investigative judge at the Casablanca court on March 3rd,” the association wrote on its Facebook page.
She was charged with “joining a terrorist group operating inside and outside the country, harming the safety and unity of the country, and inciting an unarmed gathering,” according to the National Committee for the Release of Detainees.
Bentouis entered Algeria from France to attend her mother’s funeral on February 25, where she was detained at the airport and then released and summoned for interrogation on February 28th.
During her interrogation on March 3, the judge interrogated her about the lyrics of her song critical of the military, before ordering her temporary detention pending trial in accordance with article 87 bis of the penal code.
During her visit to Algeria between November and December, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Marie Lawlor, called on the Algerian government to amend legal articles that give a “vague” concept of terrorism.
It is noteworthy that the National Committee for the Release of Detainees launched a campaign for the release of “228 prisoners of conscience”, while Amnesty International called on February 22 for the release of all “those detained for exercising freedom of expression and demonstration”, on the fifth anniversary of the start of the popular movement for democracy.
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