Abdelhamid Bouziza (25) is a peaceful movement activist and social media blogger who was concerned about issues related to political detainees and their defense through social media, the NGO said in a statement.
The case dates back to 19 October when members of the Brigade of Research and Investigation and the National Gendarmerie stormed the house of the young activist in the Saf Saf neighborhood in Tlemcen (Northwest), arrested him and then took him to an unknown destination, Alkarama added.
According to his family, the same source adds, his brother went to look for him at the State Security Center in Tlemcen, without success, and was informed that his brother was transferred to the capital the following day, October 20, 2022.
The lawyers, who went to inquire about him at the court of Tlemcen and in the courts of the capital, found no trace or file concerning him, noted the non-governmental organization, making known that to date, there is no information on the fate of Abdelhamid Bouziza and his place of detention.
His family has also received no contact from him, Alkarama said, recalling the “seriousness of the phenomenon of enforced disappearances which constitute, according to international law, a crime against humanity.”
Alkarama also expresses “its deep concern about the repetition by the country’s current political system of the experience of enforced disappearances in the 1990s, which resulted in the enforced disappearance of ten to twenty thousand victims.”
It noted that the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances has received more than three thousand cases of disappearance, adding that for ten years, the Working Group has been calling on the Algerian government to allow visits to the country.
However, the NGO said, despite numerous approvals, no visits have taken place so far, demonstrating “the lack of cooperation of the current regime with international mechanisms.”
