French consulate in Algeria deprives prisoner of defence right

French consulate in Annaba prevented a lawyer of representing Algerian Abdelhamid Hekar who served his prison sentence in France but has not been released yet.

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• Lawyer Naamane says the consulate’s decision did not allow the implementation of a judgment issued by the European Court of Human Rights in 1995 to free him.
• This judgment has not been executed while the lawyer was preparing for a meeting of the European parliament in Strasbourg on Hekar’s case.
• The lawyer held the consulate responsible for violating the judicial protocol especially articles 15 and 16. On the other hand, French lawyers who want to come to Algeria to defend their clients generally get visas on the same day they submit their files.