The announcement also comes just days before the second anniversary of Hirak

Khaled Drareni and 32 Hirak detainees released in Algeria  

photo_camera AFP - Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni greets supporters as he leaves Kolea prison, west of the capital Algiers, 19 February 2021.

Journalist Khaled Drareni, who has become a symbol of the struggle for press freedom in Algeria, was released on Friday night following the announcement of a presidential pardon for dozens of prisoners of conscience, his lawyer said.  

"He is free," Abdelaghani Badi, one of his lawyers, said on 19 February, declaring that it was a measure of "provisional release".  

Drareni is one of 33 Hirak detainees and defendants - 21 of them with final sentences - who according to the Algerian Justice Ministry have already been released in response to the pardon announced Thursday by President Abdelmajid Tebboune during an address to the nation, his first after returning from Germany, to which he was rushed in October by COVID-19 epidemics. 

According to the ministry, the files of about thirty others who could be released in the next few hours are being reviewed. 

The pardon comes just days before the second anniversary of Hirak, a movement that was born to demand the resignation of long-serving President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been seriously ill and disabled since 2013, for a fifth consecutive five-year term. 

According to local media, Drareni, founder of the website "Casbah Tribune", contributor to the French channel "TV Monde" and a leading member of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Algeria, left Koléa prison, where he was serving a sentence for the crimes of "illegal assembly" and "undermining national unity". 

Many had been waiting for the release of journalist Khaled Drareni, who was sentenced to two years in prison last September and has become a symbol of the struggle for press freedom in Algeria. He has now been released. Drareni received a presidential pardon. The Algerian regime released more than 30 prisoners of conscience on Friday after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune granted them a pardon three days before the second anniversary of the Hirak uprising.  

AFP/ RYAD KRAMDI  -   El periodista argelino Khaled Drareni hace gestos mientras es llevado en hombros por los manifestantes  

"I want to thank all those who have supported me and all those who have supported prisoners of conscience. Your support is proof of our innocence," he said on his release from prison.  

In August of the same year, he was sentenced by a court of first instance to three years in prison, the longest sentence handed down to a journalist in Algeria's recent history. An appeals court later reduced the sentence to two years, of which he has served eleven months behind bars. 

"The people are not satisfied with the government's decisions, we want to build an independent and free country, and this pardon is far from enough," reacted Moussa Abdelli, a 57-year-old taxi driver. 

However, several activists welcomed these releases, at a time when the country is undermined by a triple political, economic and health crisis. 

The day after his election in December 2019, Tebboune had already granted pardons to 76 detainees, including Hirak figures. 

This new gesture of appeasement by the president, just back from a long hospital stay in Germany, comes ahead of the second anniversary of the Hirak on 22 February, which forced the country's former strongman Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power. 

In his address to the nation on Thursday, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said: "The blessed Hirak has saved Algeria. I have decided to grant a presidential pardon (...) Between 55 and 60 people will be reunited with their families". 

According to the latest CNDC figures before these releases, some 70 people were arrested in connection with Hirak and/or individual freedoms. 

"Apart from the release of the detainees (...), Tebboune continues to maintain his roadmap and his programme of going to the legislative elections to comply with Hirak", lamented Said Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights. 

In his speech, Tebboune announced that legislative elections would be held before the end of 2021 and that a ministerial reshuffle would take place "in 48 hours at the most". 

Ahead of Hirak's anniversary, protests took place on Tuesday and Friday in several cities, and calls for demonstrations across the country on Monday are circulating on social media. 

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