SWITZERLAND  — The association Solidarité Europe-Kabylie (ASEK) based in Switzerland has just called on the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) to make it aware of the situation of Kabylian political prisoners who are rotting  arbitrarily in the prisons of the Algerian regime by highlighting the case of the young Massinissa Lakehal, imprisoned just because he is the son of a Kabylian independence activist Ammar Lakehal, who is also a Canadian citizen:

Society for Endangered Peoples e.V.
PO Box 2024
37010 Göttingen – DE

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We would like to draw your attention to the case of Kabylian Massinissa Lakehal, son of Ammar Lakehal, a Canadian citizen, and ask for your support.

Mr. Massinissa Lakehal was arbitrarily arrested in Algeria without proof of guilt. The only reason is that Massinissa is the son of Ammar Lakehal, a Canadian citizen who campaigns for human rights around the world and for the Kabyle people. According to local human rights initiatives, his arrest is linked to his peaceful commitment to the rights of the Kabylians and to the cultural and political self-determination of the Kabylian native people. It is feared that Mr. Massinissa Lakehal will be deliberately criminalized because of his solidarity with revitalizing the Kabylian identity, and that his fundamental rights will not be respected.

The wave of repression that has been targeting representatives and sympathizers of the Kabylian movement in particular since 2021 responds to a policy of extermination of Kabylian culture led by the central military-political regime of Algiers. Continuous detentions, mistreatment of political prisoners and the legally unfounded criminalization of indigenous peoples are now a commonplace, since the international community remains silent towards the Algerian leaders.

The international community must not remain silent about these human rights violations. Thank you for helping to draw public attention to this case and to the situation of the Kabylians in Algeria, and to commit to the immediate release of Massinissa Lakehal.

Sincerely,

Ahsen Enderle-Ammour
Augustin Imerzugen