Algerian Human Rights Activist Arrested in Paris Airport

Houda Mzioudet | 17 January 2012 | 1 Comment

An Algerian human rights activist, Mourad Dhina, was arrested on Monday, January 16th, 2012 in the Paris-Orly Airport by French police at the request of the Algerian authorities.

The father of six was on his way to Geneva, Switzerland where he has been living in exile. Dhina is the executive director of the Geneva based Arab non-governmental human rights organization, Al Karama.

Dhina has been an active advocate for good governance in his homeland of Algeria. He is a founding member of the Algerian political movement Rachad, an opposition political group to the Algerian military regime.

According to an announcement on the Rachad Movement’s website, the movement organized a protest in front of the Algerian Embassy in Paris on January 11th in which its members and supporters “denounced the military dictatorship and corruption of the regime in Algeria.” Dhina was arrested after he attended the Rachad Movement’s executive bureau meeting in Paris.

The arrest of Dhina came after Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mourad Medelci visited Paris, and met with French parliamentarians. He made an official request on behalf of the Algerian government to arrest Dhina. According to Eric Bosc, an assistant to the spokesperson of the French foreign ministry in charge of human rights, the arrest of Dhina came after an international arrest warrant was issued against him which is being handled by the French ministry of justice.

Dhina is waiting for the French attorney general to decide on his official request against his extradition to Algeria, according to the Al Karama website. French authorities say that Dhina will be held in France until the details of his case can be examined.

Al Karama appealed to the UN Human Rights Organization against what it called “the arbitrary arrest” of Dhina and demanded his immediate release. According to Rachid Mesli, the legal director of Al Karama, the arrest of Dhina is of a purely political nature and constitutes a serious violation by the French authorities of the Convention Against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Al Karama is an organization mainly focusing on bringing to light extra-judicial executions, disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention in Arab countries. In Arabic, Al Karama means ‘dignity’.