Algeria arrests members of banned Islamic Salvation Front after they criticise government

Algerian security forces reportedly detained members of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) group on Sunday, after they issued a statement regarding "political deadlock" Algeria, which they said was a "threat" to the country.

Ali Benhadjar, a spokesperson for the group, Ahmed Zaoui, a leading ideologue, and activist Mabrouk Saadi were among those detained, according to the Arabic-language site Arabi21.

The statement, signed by Benhadjar, included demands for a dialogue with the Algerian authorities and an end to human rights violations.

Zaoui and Saadi were also accused of involvement in the statement, according to Moroccan website Le360.

The statement said that Algeria is currently experiencing "unnecessary tragedies" and blamed these on "sharp divisions caused by unlimited greed of the ruling elite, incorrect policies and destructive selfishness".

It added that there was "a stifling political crisis and limitation on freedoms" and "increasing levels of poverty [and] hopelessness that have driven the country’s youth to leave the country" .

The Islamist FIS was on the verge of winning parliamentary elections in 1991 before the military annulled them after a coup the following year. The FIS was then banned and a brutal five-year civil war followed.

Despite being outlawed, the FIS is still active and says it seeks to establish a state of justice, law and freedom while criticising current President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's leadership. 

The arrests of senior members were condemned by the FIS's longtime leader Ali Belhadj, who called for their immediate release.

Belhadj, who spent many years in house arrest and detention, said: "They have the right to write a statement and express their opinions, and no one has the right to prevent them from their political and legal rights, or to prevent them from expressing their opinions."

"This political isolation and political execution of a party that won the people’s trust twice in local and legislative affairs is a great injustice. These individuals don’t deserve to be detained this way."

In 1989, when the FIS was made legal, it sought to appeal to Algeria's unemployed youth and called for the implementation of Islamic sharia law. It was outlawed in 1992 after winning the first round of parliamentary elections. These were annulled by military officers who carried out a coup.

The civil war which followed was dubbed "The Black Decade" and saw hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children killed.

Its former leader, Abbassi Madani, died aged 88 in April 2019 while exiled in Qatar.