A group of 34 Algerian activists announced a hunger strike in response to having been requested to take a PCR test ahead of a possible forced return to Algeria.
- Jasper Hamann
- Aug. 20, 2021 1:22 p.m.
Abdellah was a young supervisor as part of a helicopter crew who blew the whistle on rampant corruption in the gendarmerie’s upper echelons.
Rabat – A group of Algerian activists, including whistleblower Mohammed Abdellah, are protesting a possible forced deportation from Spain. A hand-written petition by the group of 34 Algerians announced the group would launch an indefinite hunger strike in protest to their impending forced return to Algeria.
The group of imprisoned activists and government critics are aware that the Spanish government aims at returning them to the regime they fled from, out of fear of persecution. In what appears to be another piece of controversial bilateral dealing between Morocco’s eastern and northern neighbor; Spain appears to be assisting Algiers in silencing its critics.
Within months of the Brahim Ghali affair that caused a continuing diplomatic rift between Morocco and Spain, the maneuvering of Spain’s interior and foreign ministry again risks ramping up tension across the Strait of Gibraltar.
The case of Mohammed Abdellah
The group of activists that launched their hunger strike aimed to respond to the threat of deportation that stems from their criticism of Algeria’s government.. One of the most prominent cases among them is that of Mohammed Abdellah, a whistleblower who risked his life to reveal ongoing corruption in the Algerian gendarmerie.
Reporting by La Hora de Africa unveils how Abdellah was a young supervisor as part of a helicopter crew tasked to monitor border surveillance. As his unit worked to prevent smuggling and human trafficking, Abdellah became aware of ongoing corruption among high-ranking officers within the gendarmerie.
Abdellah first raised the issue with his superiors, to no avail. Frustrated, Abdellah contacted domestic and foreign Algerian anti-corruption activists to bring the issue into the national spotlight. Abdellah becale a whistleblower that helped uncover how senior officers were using the security apparatus as a means of self-enrichment.
His key role in uncovering corruption made him a prime target of Algeria’s pseudo-military regime, prompting him to flee to Spain, a country that hosts a variety of north African activists and critics. Abdellah was so fearful of the presence of Algerian intelligence in the South of Spain that he relocated to the north of the country.
Algerian persecution
The Algerian government did not forget about Abdellah, putting pressure on his family and attempting to hack into his phone and online data. Algerian operatives meanwhile took to social media to publicly call on people to harm Abdellah, treating him as an outlaw for his patriotic duty in attempting to fight corruption in his home country.
Pushback from Algeria’s regime only made Abdellah a more prominent whistleblower within Algerian activist circles. He built a following of 131,000 on Facebook as well as 134,000 followers on Youtube.
The Algerian government has since claimed that the peaceful activist was part of a secret plot that involved drug trafficking and money laundering. Remarkably, the Algerian regime accused him of both being a drug dealer, and an Islamist extremist. They stepped up the pressure on Abdellah by issuing an international arrest warrant on charges of terrorism.
Now, Spain is set to deport a man who will certainly be subject to torture and imprisonment upon his return to Algeria. In doing so, Spain would be in violation of both UN and EU treaties against torture and inhumane treatment or punishment.
Just as in the Brahim Ghali affair, the Spanish are set to once again violate the trust of their neighbors and domestic population in favor of appeasing Algeria’s shadowy regime. Returning the 34 activists imprisoned in Barcelona violates international treaties, disregards bilateral relations with Morocco, all in an attempt to satisfy the needs of an unpopular regime in Algiers.
