Algeria arrests key leftist opposition figure

Algerian authorities arrested opposition figure Fethi Ghares Tuesday, taking him, according to his wife, Messaouda Cheballah, and a prisoners' rights group, as reported by AFP. Ghares who previously led the banned Democratic and Social Movement party, was detained by plainclothes police at his home in Algiers and taken to an undisclosed location. There has been no official statement on his arrest

Ghares, 49, is a key figure in Algeria's secular leftist opposition. He was arrested in 2021 and later sentenced to prison on charges including "insulting the president.” In January 2022 he was sentence to two years in prison for “harming the person of the president of the republic and "spreading information that could harm national unity." He was released in March 2022 on appeal. Ghares joined the pro-democracy Hirak movement in 2019, which succeeded in ousting President Bouteflika from power. His party, the Democratic and Social Movement, was banned in February 2023. The arrest comes shortly before Algeria's presidential elections on September 7.