The head of Algeria's Constitutional Council has quit under pressure from protesters.
State news agency APS reported that Constitutional Council President Tayeb Belaiz submitted his resignation to Algeria's interim president on Tuesday.
Belaiz is one of three power figures named by pro-democracy protesters in their demands for a government cleanup. They're seen as part of the discredited regime of ex-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Students carry banners and chant slogans during a demonstration in Algiers, Algeria, Tuesday, April 16, 2019. President of the Algerian Constitutional Council Tayeb Belaiz resigned on Tuesday amid mass protests in the country demanding for his departure. "Belaiz notified the members of the Constitutional Council, during a meeting held Tuesday, that he presented his resignation to the interim president Abdelkader Bensalah," the council said in a statement. (AP PhotoAnis Belghoul)
Belaiz's departure could help calm the angry protesters by clearing the way for someone considered more independent.
Also Tuesday, Algeria's military chief called on the country's people to show "patience" during the political transition ahead.
A presidential election has been set for July 4 to choose the successor to Bouteflika, who stepped down this month under pressure from protesters and military chief of staff Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah.
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — An Algerian journalist was expelled from the country after flying in from France and not being allowed to leave the airport as journalists continue to face challenges reporting in Algeria.
Farid Alilat, a writer for the French-language magazine Jeune Afrique, wrote on Facebook that he spent 11 hours in police custody on Saturday at the airport before being boarded onto a plane and sent to France, where he has a residency permit.
Alilat said he regularly takes flights from Paris to Algiers to report on Algeria, where he has for years been a well-known journalist due to his work for French-language daily newspapers including Liberté, which was shuttered in 2022 amid financial problems and scuffles with the government and Algeria's state-owned oil company, both of which are major advertisers for the country's newspapers.
In a lengthy post in which he wrote of his deportation as if he were reporting on it, Alilat alleged that police officers on the tarmac in Algiers told him that they were acting on orders “from above.”
He said he was interrogated about his travels, who he has met with and about Jeune Afrique, which Algerian authorities believe favors their neighbor and regional rival, Morocco.
“I completely understand that my articles are a source of irritation. I am a free journalist. I cover the news of my country as a free and independent journalist,” Alilat wrote, noting that he was not given any verbal or written explanation for his expulsion.
He wrote that he had never previously heard of any issues from law enforcement or the courts in Algeria regarding his articles, including during a reporting trip in December 2023
Few Algerian media outlets reported on Alilat's expulsion and few politicians commented on it. Former Communications Minister Abdelaziz Rahabi called it “a measure from another era that serves neither the people nor the government.”
“No one can be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter their own country," he wrote on Facebook.
The episode is the latest instance of Algeria's government restricting journalists from reporting in Algeria and comes while high-profile journalists, including editors Ihsane El Kadi and Mustapha Benjama remain in prison on charges related to using foreign funds to finance journalism and disrupting public order.
The government, however, has also resumed granting authorizations to journalists starting new media outlets or television shows and last year passed a law enshrining new protections for journalists.
Farid Alilat, a writer for the French-language magazine Jeune Afrique poses for photo in Paris, France, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Alilat was expelled from Algeria after flying in from France and not being allowed to leave the airport as journalists continue to face challenges reporting in Algeria. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Farid Alilat, a writer for the French-language magazine Jeune Afrique poses for photo in Paris, France, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Alilat was expelled from Algeria after flying in from France and not being allowed to leave the airport as journalists continue to face challenges reporting in Algeria. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Farid Alilat, a writer for the French-language magazine Jeune Afrique poses for photo in Paris, France, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Alilat was expelled from Algeria after flying in from France and not being allowed to leave the airport as journalists continue to face challenges reporting in Algeria. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
