Temporary prison will be an exception in Algeria, says minister

Algerian justice minister Taib Louh said the penal code will be reviewed in terms of temporary prison so that it would be applied on exceptional cases only.

“The justice ministry works on revising the penal code regarding individuals’ freedom and temporary prison. It will remain an exception,” Louh told reporters on Thursday.

“It will be up to judges to decide. They have total freedom as they know about all the details,” he added.

He also said witnesses should be protected. “The current penal code does not include any guarantees for witnesses. Those guarantees are necessary.”

According to the minister, a new plan will be established to speed up administrative and judicial correction procedures on marital status as part of justice sector modernization. Instructions will be given to enable people to obtain their corrected documents in a short time.

“People have submitted more than 2 million and 200,000 requests since 2009.”

Speaking about nationality document, Louh said people can now withdraw the document without submitting father and grandfather’s birth certificates if they have already submitted pervious requests.