Algeria continues crackdown in Kabylie, sentences poet Samir Mokrani to two years in prison

The fierce repression carried out by Algeria’s ruling junta against activists in Kabylie was evidenced again this week when militant poet Samir Mokrani was sentenced to two years in prison for his peaceful activism in favor of the autonomy of Kabylie.

The conviction of Samir Mokrani, Monday February 6 by the court of Tizi Ouzzou, is part of the harassment targeting Kabyle militants by a justice subservient to the military junta of General Chengriha.

Samir Mokrani’s poetry disturbs the junta. Through his lyrics, he expresses his love for Kabylie and denounces the injustice the Algerian regime inflicts on the Kabyle people.

The poet, aka Anza, is one of the survivors of the black spring of 2001, when the Algerian gendarmes fired live ammunition on young Kabyles, killing 130 and injuring thousands.

His troubles with the Algerian justice date back to 2017. He was then sentenced to 6 months in prison for the positions in favor of a free Kabylie he expressed in his poems that he shared on Facebook.

In August 2019, he was victim of an assassination attempt for the same reasons. He was violently attacked and left for dead near his village in Larbaa Nath Irathen, where he was rescued and supported by many activists from the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK).