Algeria fails to get Paris-based Kabyle independence leader extradited

French police has let go  one of the outspoken leaders of the Kabyle independence movement, known as MAK, wanted by Algiers.

Aksel Bellabaci has been interrogated by the French police in Paris following an arrest warrant filed by Algeria, which accuses the Kabyle activist of igniting fires in Kabyle region in 2021.

The failure to get Bellabbaci extradited to Algiers, where he was sentenced in absentia, indicates that Algeria’s use of terrorism to crackdown on Kabyle independence activists is exposed.

MAK president Ferhat Mhenni said Bellabacci’s arrest highlights the “fantasies” of the Algerian regime, which also accused Morocco and Israel for the fires that ravaged the Kabylie region, killing more than 100 people.

While the Algerian regime labeled MAK as a terrorist organization, the independence movement continues to act freely, staging sit-ins and marches in Paris and other western capitals.

The media said Macron was probably trying to offer another free gift to Tebboune but the independence of French judiciary prevented the act from happening.

Algeria is used to intimidating Kabyle activists. Recently, Radio Canada shed light on the blackmail by Algerian agents of Kabyle activists in the country.

In Tunisia, however, Algiers managed to get a Christian Kabyle activist, Slimane Bouhafs, extradited although he was having a refugee status.