The Bir Mourad Raïs prosecution service announced on March 22 that it will be issuing international arrest warrants for terrorism-related charges against several exiled pro-democracy activists. Namely, Mohamed Larbi Zitout, co-founder of the pro-democracy movement ‘Rachad’, YouTube commentator Amir Boukhors (known as Amir Dz), former intelligence officer turned journalist/writer Hicham Aboud, and two other individuals named Mansouri Ahmed and Mohamed Abdellah. They stand accused of terrorism according to the prosecution service’s statement.
The prosecution service was quoted as stating that it is “a serious criminal case of undermining public order, the security and the stability of the country, a case undergoing judicial treatment after deep investigations carried out over several months which made it possible to identify its sponsors, among them internet activists“. However, the prosecution service did not put forward evidence to back the allegations made, leading political commentators to suggest that the charges are once again fabricated. Others see in the announcement yet another instance of an authoritarian regime abusing Interpol’s red notice system to persecute and taint the reputation of exiled critics.
Moreover, it should be noted that these same exiled activists have in the past been the subject of unsubstantiated international arrest warrants for various charges.
Charismatic and articulate, the London-based Mohamed Larbi Zitout enjoys a large social media following. The activist has been commenting for decades on political events while denouncing the corrupt military junta through regular TV interventions, Facebook and YouTube live streams which attract millions of views. On Facebook alone, Mohamed Larbi Zitout counts over 1.9 million followers as of press time.
The prosecution service accused Mohamed Larbi Zitout of receiving “large sums through corporate entities to finance the secret activities of the Rachad movement” as well as the “management and financing of a terrorist group targeting state security and national unity, forgery and use of forgery, and money laundering as part of a gang criminal”. Mohamed Larbi Zitout vehemently denied these “defamatory allegations” and denounced in a recent video the propagation of these allegations by the BBC and the AFP, alleging that the two agencies are taking part in a UK and France sponsored propaganda effort meant to shore up the junta on the international stage.
It must be emphasised that although the junta regularly accuses Rachad of being a terrorist organisation, no evidence was ever presented to back the allegation. In its manifesto, the Rachad movement states that it is against a theocratic state and would not seek to rule the country.
As for Hichem Aboud, Amir Dz and Mohamed Abdellah, they are “prosecuted for joining a terrorist group targeting the security of the State and national unity, financing of a terrorist group targeting the security of the State and money laundering as part of a criminal gang”.
Amid a strong return of the pro-democracy ‘Hirak’ movement calling for the fall of the junta, the authorities have sought to use terrorism as a scarecrow. On a recent occasion, the junta-controlled ENTV channel broadcast an interview with an alleged terrorist presenting himself as Abou Dahdah who proceeded to describe how he had supposedly infiltrated the pro-democracy protests to instigate violence on the order exiled activists, explicitly naming Mohamed Larbi Zitout. On another occasion, the Ministry of Defence announced that it had defused an explosive device meant to be detonated during the Friday’s street protests.
Since the start of the pro-democracy movement in February 2019, the junta has sought to divide the Hirak movement initially based on ethnic considerations (Berber vs Arab) but failed to obtain tangible results. It then moved on to nourish another diversion by opposing Islam to secularism through its official narrative and the thousands of online trolls deployed to stir the public debate away from the Hirak’s main objective: the establishment of a democratic state.