ALGIERS, 3 July 2003 — The two top leaders of an outlawed Islamic party that nearly swept to power more than a decade ago were freed yesterday from detention after serving their 12-year prison terms, the Algerian Army announced.
Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj, who headed the Islamic Salvation Front, known as the FIS, have been banned from all political activity as a condition of their release, an army statement carried by the APS news agency said. Belhadj, a fiery orator, had been held in Blida military prison, 60 kilometers south of Algiers. Madani, considered the strategist, had been living under house arrest for the past six years in Algiers after serving six years in prison.
Belhadj, wearing a gray Djalaba robe and white cap, went straight to his local mosque in Algiers’ Kouba district to pray where some 100 followers greeted him. Crowds pushed and shoved to see Belhadj as he immediately went to pray at the mosque, in Algiers suburb where he lives, following his 6:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) release. He then went to the home of Madani, in Algiers, for a half-hour visit. Speaking on behalf of the leaders, FIS member Ali Djeddi told reporters: “We reassure people who fear, that the FIS will do its utmost to help bring stability to this country.”
Madani, 72, and Belhadj, 47, were arrested in June 1991 after a general strike led by their party that all but paralyzed military-backed authorities who had run the country since independence from France in 1962. They were convicted of attacking the security of the state and sentenced to 12-year prison terms in July 1992. The year served before their conviction counts as one of the 12 years.
Authorities said in statements that Madani and Belhadj were barred from political activity and that Madani signed the release conditions while Belhadj refused.
It was unclear what this meant for Belhadj, who also declined police protection. “Don’t fear, be confident. Algeria belongs to Algerians,” he told a group of cheering supporters in the capital Algiers.
