Italy arrests the dismissed FIS Party’s lawyer

Italian authorities announced, on Friday, the arrest of former lawyer of a number of the dismissed FIS party leaders, Rachid Mesli, under an arrest warrant that was issued by the Interpol, on charges of terrorism by the Algerian justice.

Italian State Television, quoted the local police as saying; “The arrest took place on Wednesday afternoon, in San Bernardo area -Northern Italy- on the Swiss border, when Messli was returning from Switzerland – his residence – on board of the car with his wife and son.

Messli was arrested following INTERPOL’s arrested warrant, at the request of the Algerian authorities, which accused him of terrorism, and then Italian police detained him in the local prison (north), to stand before the competent judge, according to the state television.

According to Amnesty International’s information, Messli obtained asylum in Switzerland in 2000, after he was arrested in Algeria in 1996, for a period of three years, on charges of “encouraging terrorism”.

After he got political asylum, he founded in Geneva, Switzerland, the Foundation of Dignity, to uncover what he called the cases of violation of human rights in the Arab world, and he also participated in international conferences in which he alleged the existence of “violations” that were committed in Algeria.

Previously, the Justice Ministry, issued on April 2002, an international arrest warrant against Messli, on charges of “Joining a terrorist group that is operating abroad”, and “ordered the international arrest warrant” that was signed by the Attorney General of the Algiers Council and the security authorities in the world to arrest Messli and handed him over to Algeria, as the judicial decision said;  “We ask the authorities of the country where Messli lives or resides to kindly determine his whereabouts and arrest and imprison him, and handed him over to our authorities.”

Algerian justice said, in a document that was distributed to international security agencies, that Messli “committed in the month of June 1999, and exactly on the outskirts of the city of Dellys, where he had contacts with the terrorists Khaidar Karim, Ouldada Ibrahim and Allalou Hmida, leader of the terrorist group in the region, and they were providing the accused with telephone information regarding the movements of terrorist groups.”

Same lawyer was the cause of freezing the Advisory Membership of the Arab Commission for Human Rights at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and the Council announced that it took this decision at the request of Algeria, which accused the NGO that it chose a person that is wanted on charges of terrorism, to represent it, in reference to Rachid Messli.