Algeria Frees Islamic Party Leaders

03/07/2003| IslamWeb

Algeria's top two Islamic leaders, hailed by some as heroes and others as murderers, were released Wednesday after serving out their 12-year prison terms. The men - Ali Belhadj, 47, and Abassi Madani, 72 - were banned from politics, part of a bid to squelch their influence a year before presidential elections. Belhadj refused to sign the ban, an indication incarceration had failed to break his spirit. Madani and Belhadj headed the now-outlawed Islamic Salvation Front, which nearly rose to power in Algeria's first multiparty national elections in December 1991. The army canceled the second round of the vote, igniting an insurgency that has left an estimated 120,000 civilians, security forces and insurgents dead. The war continues today; a state of emergency remains in force. Belhadj, a charismatic preacher, refused to sign the order condemning himself and Madani to silence, according to the prosecutor at the military court in Blida, 40 miles south of Algiers. But Madani, considered the strategist, signed the order. He had been living under house arrest for the past six years in Algiers after serving the six previous years in prison. Although Belhadj did not sign the ban, it is considered legally binding. The order forbids political, cultural or social activity, including charitable work - once a main function of the Islamic Salvation Front. However, the pair's lawyer, Ali Yahia Abdenour, predicted they "will come back politically." "They will be present on the political scene," he said on France's LCI television. "The question is to know how." Crowds pushed and shoved to see Belhadj after his release, and he went to pray at the mosque in Kouba, the Algiers suburb where he lives. He then went to Madani's home in Algiers for a brief visit. Neither man commented on their release. Madani and Belhadj were arrested in 1991 after a general strike led by their party that all but paralyzed military-backed authorities who ran the country since independence from France in 1962. They were convicted of attacking the security of the state and sentenced to 12-year prison terms in July 1992. The year served before their conviction counts as one of the 12 years. Some Algerians, who lost members in the insurgency, hold Madani and Belhadj responsible for violence during the insurgency. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has made clear that the question of reviving the Islamic party was "politically closed." The party was created in 1989 with a constitutional change allowing for a multiparty system. It quickly rose in popularity, sweeping municipal elections the following year. Other party leaders have been killed or are in exile in Europe. **Photo Caption*** Ali Belhadj leaves the Blida military prison, 60 kilometers south of Algiers, after serving a 12-year prison term, Wednesday July 2, 2003. (AP Photo)