{"id":1248794,"date":"2023-10-05T22:15:06","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T22:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=94146"},"modified":"2023-10-05T22:15:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T22:15:06","slug":"ahmed-zaoui-detained-in-algeria-for-democracy-statements-lawyer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/10\/05\/ahmed-zaoui-detained-in-algeria-for-democracy-statements-lawyer-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahmed Zaoui detained in Algeria for democracy statements, lawyer says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/\"><em>RNZ News<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Algerian democracy advocate Ahmed Zaoui, a New Zealand citizen, has been arrested by Algerian security forces after commenting on human rights violations at a political meeting at his home.<\/p>\n<p>His New Zealand lawyer Deborah Manning said Zaoui had been detained at a police station in the city of Medea since he was taken from his home at about 5.30pm on Tuesday (Algerian time).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was arrested at gunpoint . . . by eight men in balaclavas from the special forces and the neighbourhood was surrounded, so it was a significant operation, and he&#8217;s been taken for interrogation,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podcast.radionz.co.nz\/mnr\/mnr-20231005-0740-ahmed_zaoui_nz_citizen_detained_in_algeria-128.mp3\"><strong>LISTEN TO RNZ <em>MORNING REPORT<\/em>:<\/strong> NZ citizen Ahmed Zaoui detained in Algeria<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9RhP2I7KqH0\"><em>Behind The Shroud<\/em> &#8211; juxtapositioning truth, intelligence and tradecraft<\/a> &#8211; <em>Documentary by Selwyn Manning<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Ahmed+Zaoui\">Other Ahmed Zaoui reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a precarious situation for anyone taken under these circumstances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He had not yet been charged with anything, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Zaoui, who was recognised as a refugee in New Zealand 20 years ago after a protracted legal battle, entered Algeria on a New Zealand passport.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mr Zaoui has two homes now &#8212; he has family in Algeria and New Zealand and he was wanting to find a way to live in both worlds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8216;Constant communication&#8217;<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;He returned to Algeria to be with family in recent years as the political situation appeared to be settling. He was planning to return to New Zealand later this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Manning remained in &#8220;constant communication&#8221; with Zaoui&#8217;s family in Algeria.<\/p>\n<p>The family was &#8220;very concerned&#8221; and was working with New Zealand consular affairs.<\/p>\n<p>There was no New Zealand consulate in Algeria but Manning said she was in touch with &#8220;the relevant authorities&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9RhP2I7KqH0?si=AKYtZ6yk_-Mih1S8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Selwyn Manning&#8217;s documentary on the Ahmed Zaoui case.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told RNZ it was aware of reports of a New Zealander detained in Algeria but could not provide further information due to &#8220;privacy reasons&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/location\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/algeria\/\">According to Amnesty International<\/a>, about 300 people have been arrested in Algeria on charges related to freedom of speech since a law change in April cracking down on media freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Zaoui, a former theology professor, stood as a candidate for the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria&#8217;s first general election in 1991.<\/p>\n<p>However, the government cancelled the election and banned his party when it appeared it was on track to win the election, forcing Zaoui and others to flee the country.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/10\/06\/ahmed-zaoui-detained-in-algeria-for-political-statements-lawyer-says\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RNZ News The Algerian democracy advocate Ahmed Zaoui, a New Zealand citizen, has been arrested by Algerian security forces after commenting on human rights violations at a political meeting at his home. His New Zealand lawyer Deborah Manning said Zaoui had been detained at a police station in the city of Medea since he was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69540,13648,1168,4624,432,8340,5,6,1497,69541,34369,10,255,12,13,14,238,368,417,1743],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248794"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1248794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1252196,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248794\/revisions\/1252196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1248794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1248794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1248794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}