Algeria detains 22 alleged separatist group members

ALGIERS— An Algerian court has ordered 22 suspected members of a regional separatist group placed in pre-trial detention, an aid group and local media reported.

The detainees were among around 30 people arrested in recent days by the police on suspicion of belonging to the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK), which the government says is a terrorist organisation.

Algeria’s Human Rights League (LADDH) and local media reported that a court in the capital Algiers detained 22 of the people arrested and imposed restrictions on eight more, while one minor was released.

Those arrested were accused of “harming national unity, harming public order and inciting a gathering”.

Most were rounded up in Kherrata in northern Algeria, where demonstrators clashed with police last week after authorities banned a march in support of people jailed for their political views.

Some officers were injured during the violence in the city, which is in the traditionally restive northeastern Kabylie region.

“Military clothing and bladed weapons” were found in searches of the homes of people arrested, the authorities said.

They accused the suspects of attempting to “sow strife and fear among citizens and reactivate sleeper cells of the (MAK) terrorist organisation, under orders from foreign parties”.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK