The Algerian government has recalled its ambassador to France, Said Musi, for consultations after «strongly protesting» against the «clandestine and illegal exfiltration» by Paris of the Algerian opponent Amira Buraui, who was in Tunisia.
The Algerian Foreign Ministry has indicated in a brief statement on its account on the social network Twitter that it has conveyed to France its condemnation of this «violation of national sovereignty» and has denounced that «the diplomatic, consular and security personnel of the French State participated in the illegal exfiltration of an Algerian whose presence on Algerian territory is required by the decision of Justice».
«In its official note, Algeria rejects this unacceptable event, which causes great damage to Franco-Algerian relations,» it said, after Buraoui was transferred on February 6 from Tunis to the French city of Lyon. The activist was arrested in Tunis on February 3 as she was preparing to travel to France after crossing the Algerian-Tunisian border clandestinely.
She then appeared before a Tunisian judge on February 6, who released her and returned her passport, although she was re-arrested as she left the court with the aim of being deported to Algeria. However, she was transferred to the French Embassy, after which she finally traveled to Lyon, as reported by the newspaper ‘Tout sur l’Algerie’.
The opposition activist was sentenced to two years in prison in May 2021 for «attacking the person of the President of the Republic», «insulting an official in the exercise of his duties» and «disseminating information likely to undermine public order», as well as «attacking the precepts of Islam and the prophet».
Buraui was sentenced in 2020 to one year in prison on these same charges, for «publications likely to undermine national unity» and for «inciting» demonstrations during the confinement imposed by the authorities for the coronavirus. Buraui launched a campaign in 2014 against the campaign of the then president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, for a new mandate, something she succeeded in doing. Subsequently, she was one of the organizers of the mobilizations against the president when he announced in 2019 that he would again contest the polls, which eventually forced his resignation in April of that year.
Bilateral tensions surface again less than two months after France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the return «to a normal consular relationship» with Algeria after more than a year with the issuance of visas halved by France, which strained relations between Paris and Algiers.
The presidents of France and Algeria, Emmanuel Macron and Abdelmayid Tebune, respectively, agreed in August on a document certifying a «new irreversible dynamic» in relations between the two countries, 60 years after Algerian independence from French colonialism and in the face of differences on this point and other regional issues.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
