GENEVA - UN experts* today urged the Court in Algiers to quash the trial of the poet Mohamed Tadjadit, warning that the reclassified charges against him carry the penalty of death.
"We are deeply concerned by the decision of the Algiers Court last November to reclassify the charges Mr Tadjadit was tried on in March 2022," the experts said. "The Court will now retry Mr Tadjadit on three new criminal charges, including the offence of 'attacks, conspiracies and other offences against the authority of the State and the integrity of the national territory' on 30 April."
"The reclassified charges, under Article 77 of the Penal Code, are punishable by the death penalty," they said.
Mohamed Tadjadit is a poet and human rights defender, a member of the Hirak movement, widely recognised for his poetry in Darija and his peaceful advocacy for fundamental freedoms in Algeria.
In March 2022, Tadjadit was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment, a sentence reduced on appeal prior to his release in August 2022.
"We remind the government that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), in its Opinion No. 45/2022 of 26 October 2022 has already concluded that Tadjadit's detention in relation to the original charges was arbitrary, that his right to a fair trial had been violated, and that he and his co-defendants had been punished for exercising their freedom of opinion and expression, which is contrary to international law," the experts said.
The new criminal charges against Tadjadit appear once again to be directly linked to same conduct as the earlier offences for which he was convicted in 2022, namely the exercise of his right to freedom of expression and his commitment to defending human rights, and contravene the principle of double jeopardy.
"We continue to observe unjustified restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression and the repeated use of the judicial system to intimidate those considered dissidents in Algeria," they said.
"We are alarmed by the Government's practice of stifling all political dissent and criticism of the authorities by arbitrarily arresting and detaining people who dare to speak out," the experts said.
The experts also expressed concern regarding the subsequent charges still hanging over Tadjadit for supporting terrorism under Article 87 bis - deemed incompatible with international law - and other offences relating to the integrity and security of the State, which undermine freedom of expression and association in Algeria more generally.
"The accumulation of charges against Mr Tadjadit on the basis of vague and imprecise provisions continues to criminalise the legitimate exercise of human rights," the experts said.
The experts urged Algeria to abandon the new charges and vacate the earlier conviction. "This case has been marred by serious judicial irregularities and arbitrary detention as confirmed by the WGAD. In addition, the offences are not "most serious crimes" as required to apply the death penalty in accordance with the right to life under Article 6 of the ICCPR, and there is in any case, a global trend to abolish the death penalty."
"The Court in Algiers must annul the unjustified trial of 30 April and drop all new charges that reclassify the events of 2022 and expose Mr Tadjadit to the death penalty."
The experts have raised these concerns with the government.
