Algeria: Issuance of international arrest warrants against four individuals.

 The Bir Mourad Rais Court in Algiers, Algeria, has issued international arrest warrants against four individuals. These individuals are former diplomat residing in the United Kingdom, Mohamed Arabi Zitout, blogger Amira Boukhars, known as "Amir de Z," as well as two other individuals named Hicham Aboud and Mohamed Abdullah. They are accused of belonging to a terrorist group.

A court in the Algerian capital issued international arrest warrants on Sunday against four individuals residing abroad, accused, in particular, of belonging to a terrorist group.

The individuals targeted by the arrest warrants are former diplomat residing in the United Kingdom, Mohamed Arabi Zitout, blogger Amira Boukhars, known as "Amir de Z," as well as a third person named Hicham Aboud and a fourth person named Mohamed Abdullah. Zitout (57 years old) contributed to the establishment of the banned "Rachad" movement in Algeria in 2007 and became one of its main leaders. He worked at the Algerian embassy in Libya in 1991 and then went into exile in London in 1995 after resigning from the diplomatic corps.

According to authorities, "Rachad" includes former militants of the dissolved Islamic Salvation Front (in March 1992). This movement is accused of seeking to infiltrate the pro-democracy movement that began in February 2019, demanding a radical change in the political system. According to a statement from the prosecutor's office published by the official Algerian news agency, Mohamed Zitout is being prosecuted for "the crime of managing a terrorist group committing acts targeting the security of the state and national unity, and the crime of financing a terrorist group committing acts targeting the security of the state, as well as the offense of participating in the falsification and use of falsified administrative documents and money laundering within a criminal organization."

The statement adds that Hicham Aboud, Amira Boukhars, and Mohamed Abdullah are being prosecuted for "the crime of joining a terrorist group committing acts targeting the security of the state and national unity, the crime of financing a terrorist group committing acts targeting the security of the state, as well as the offense of money laundering within a criminal organization," the name of which was not specified.