Washington refuses to extradite Anwar Haddam to Algeria

The former leader of the dissolved FIS party Anwar Haddam will not be extradited to Algeria.

“A U.S. immigrationjudge decided, Thursday, January 29, not to extradite me to Algeria confirming  a decision by  the US Federal Court”, said Anwar Haddam the former head of the foreign delegation of the dissolved FIS  party in a press release issued on Wednesday. 

The decision of the United States “comes after more than two decades of suffering since the submission of my application for political asylum in the USA”, he added.

Anwar Haddam said that he was arrested in 1996 in the United States “in the absence of evidence, as he put it”, before being freed in 2000 and placed under house arrest until now. “While I was about to secure my right to political asylum, some parties have seized theevents of September 11, 2001, to request my extradition to Algeria”, he argued.

This former leader of the disbanded FIS party also recalled that he had duly signed the Charter for peace and national reconciliation at the Embassy of Algeria in Washington on August 25, 2006. 

“My  political activities consisted strictly in joining the politicalopposition against the judgment on the halted electoral process, on January 11, 1992 and giving my  political support to the principle of the right of the Algerian people to defend their elected institutions,” he affirmed in a statement to Echorouk.

Anwar Haddam wants to return to Algeria

Anwar Haddam said that nothing prevents him to benefit from the provisions of theCharter for peace and national reconciliation. “I have committed no collective massacre, rape or use of explosives in public places, and I did not incite others to do so,” he said before talking about his desire to return to Algeria”voluntarily”. 

A return to be made under the law for national reconciliation and benefiting from all his” civil and political rights guaranteed by the laws of the Republic of Algeria to all its citizens”, according to him.

In 2011, Anwar Haddam had denied “having claimed” the bomb attacks in Algeria, including the one against the Algiers central police station in the Amirouche boulevard way back in 1995.

Anwar Haddam is the subject of an international warrant of arrest issued by the Algerian authorities against him and is now on the wanted list of Interpol.