Committee of politicians, lawyers should be created to defend Algerian prisoners in Iraq, human rights activists say
الشروق أونلاين
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A prison in Iraq. Photo: copyright
Human rights activists called for the to the creation of a national committee that comprises a group of jurists, diplomats, and political activists to follow the cases of Algerian prisoners in countries that did not sign prisoners’ exchange agreement with Algeria.
“Absence of these agreements make the Algerian Defense Association in a critical position, but it should not abandon the humanitarian position through condemnation and protest. What happens to the Algerians who are in the prisons of Iraq, needs unity and movement there for defending their rights in front of the Iraqi authorities away from the corridors of the court.”
International law expert, and former member of the National Assembly, Souileh Boudjemaa, told Echorouk, the Algerian defense body’s position on what is happening against prisoners in Iraq, remains subject to the absence of the Convention that is relating to the exchange of prisoners, and it has no right to interfere in the Iraqi judicial system, but the protest of activists, jurists and civil society is based on the provisions of the Human Rights Act, or humanitarian situations to pressurize the Algerian authorities in order to move or find channels of dialogue in such cases.
Professor Zahia Mokhtari, lawyer at Algiers Judicial Council, expressed anger over the total silence of the Algerian human rights associations about what is happening against Algerian prisoners in Iraq, and called for organizing a protest and a block of lawyers to engage in dialogue with diplomats and politicians on this issue.
“Criminal Procedure Act of any country required to notify the prisoner’s family, the defense family and the imams before issuing a death sentence against the prisoner, and what happened to some of the prisoners in Iraq is a breach of laws. There are steps that can be carried out by the Syndicate of Algerian Lawyers, especially since each lawyer has the right to move in defense of the party that is followed in the framework of respecting the human rights laws.”
For his part, Ammar Hamdini, lawyer at the Supreme Court, condemned what happens to the Algerian prisoners in Iraq, and said there is no legal right for the Algerian lawyer to compel the judicial authorities there to abandon the death penalty, but they have the right to follow cases, fill complaints and inform the Iraqi authorities about the situation of their parents in Algeria.
Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, Farouk Ksentini, told Echorouk in a phone interview, that the reasons for the absence of the exchange of prisoners between Algeria and the Gulf states remain unknown to the Algerian human rights associations, and the latter attitudes towards these prisoners are only humanitarian, and the issue is in the hands of the Algerian Foreign Ministry.
“We do not know exactly the case of Algerian prisoners in Iraq, especially after the deterioration of the security situation there, and we do not have any data on these prisoners, which makes their situation very difficult.”
