Algeria: After 12 Years Imprisonment, Malik Medjnoun Begins Hunger Strike
Malik was in fact nicknamed "little Matoub" due to his fondness of Matoub's music. Malik Medjnoune went on a hunger strike today, 25 June 2010, insisting that he be put on trial.
From his prison cell today, Malik Medjnoune saluted Lounès Matoub, despite having been held in prison without trial for over 10 years in connection to his murder. And while he continues to proclaim his innocence, he said that without the truth and justice being served, Lounès Matoub is murdered again.
Malik Medjnoune was abducted near his home in Tizi-Ouzou on 28 September 1999 by agents of the Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS) and held incommunicado at the DRS's "Antar" barracks in Ben Aknoun (Algiers). During his eight months of detention he was brutally tortured by various methods, including being chocked by a cloth and electrocuted. On 5 May 2001, he would appear before Tizi-Ouzou's criminal court, however his case was indefinitely postponed. Since then, he has yet to be presented before a court to establish his innocence.
Alkarama submitted Malik Medjnoune's case to the UN Human Rights Committee on 1 June 2004. The UN Human Rights Committee ruled his case on 14 July 2006, urging the Algerian authorities to:
"Put Malik Medjnoune immediately on trial, in order that he be informed of the charges against and if not, then he should be released; to conduct a thorough and expeditious investigation regarding the period he spent in secret detention and the treatment he has suffered since his arrest on 28 September 1999; and to initiate criminal proceedings against those responsible for these violations."
During the procedure, the Algerian government informed Human Rights Committee in a letter dated 28 December 2004 that "the case would shortly be submitted to the Tizi-Ouzou criminal court for trial."
Despite the Algerian government's commitments and the Human Rights Committee's findings, Malik Medjnoune is still awaiting trial. There is no precedent to date in Algeria for a case of preventive detention of more than 10 years. This is a particularly serious violation of Algeria's commitments to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which prohibits arbitrary detention and considers that a person should be tried without undue delay.
It is clear that the decision neither to release Malik Medjnoune, nor to put him on trial is politically motivated. The Algerian government is not only in clear violation of its own domestic laws, but also its commitments resulting from Algeria's ratification of international treaties.