Farouk Kessentini to Echouorok: The law against terrorism is not a threat civil liberties

The Chairman of the Algerian Human Rights League, Boudjemaa Guechir has indicated that worries expressed over the replacement of the state of emergency by another law designed to fight against terrorism, are “legitimate”, noting such a move is inappropriate because the existing penal law penal includes specific provisions that deal with this issue

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•  In a declaration to “Echourok”, M Guechir has asserted that the law exists since the beginning of the 1990s but was vehemently criticized by lawyers at the time and asked its cancellation. Consequently, the law was included in the penal code in 1995 after being revised to comply with the legislation.
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• M Boudjemaa Guechir has indicated that everybody fell in the trap of limiting their requests to the lifting up of the state of emergency, brushing aside the core issues notably, the necessity carry out political reforms and more specifically on the constitution.
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• The Human rights activists considers that the Algerian political system has moved from a parliamentarian system to a presidential one, where the president is not consulting anymore the legislative branch and resorts systematically to presidential decrees.
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• He has also called for the disbanding of presidential alliance that he considers as “ more dangerous than the state of emergency”, noting that this alliance has led to a political stalemate on account of the political hegemony imposed by three major parties on the political scene. He noted that the so called “presidential alliance” is a “three –head” party.
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•  For his part, the chairman of the National Consultative Committee for the Promotion of Human Rights, Farouk Kessentini doesn’t consider that the new law to fight against terrorism is a threat against civil liberties because, according to him, the individual rights are protected by the constitution
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• Answering to a question concerning the real drives behind the announcement of the lifting up of the state of emergency, Faouk Kessentini has indicated that “the move could be triggered by the latest turmoil that rocked Egypt and Tunisia, but hailed the decision taken by the president”.