Algerian police raid book event and briefly arrest French author

Algerian police briefly arrested a French author and her Algerian publisher as well as other people during a raid on a book event, the publisher told the French news agency. AFP on Sunday.

Dominique Martre, author of “La Kabylie en partage” (“Divided Kabylia”), was arrested along with her husband and the owner of the bookstore, said Arezki Ait-Larbi, director of the Koukou publishing house, who was himself detained.

“The police stormed the bookstore at the beginning of the book presentation on Saturday afternoon and arrested everyone who was in the room,” said Ait-Larbi.

“We were taken to the police station before being released at eight o’clock in the evening (19:00 GMT),” he continued.

Police did not immediately explain the reason for the raid on the Librairie Gouraya bookstore in the eastern Zimbabwean city of Bejaia.

Her book, published and sold in Algeria, is a memoir of the time she spent with women in Kabylia, a region of the country inhabited by the Berber ethnic group, also known as Amazigh.

On Sunday, Martre was “still in Bejaia without her freedom being restricted,” Ait-Larbi said.

The Frenchwoman had already presented her book last week in the capital Algiers “without any problems,” he said.

“The book was presented at the International Book Fair (in Algeria) at the end of last year and is normally sold in all bookstores.”

The Koukou publishing house has been subjected to censorship in recent years.

In 2022, twelve of the publisher’s books – mainly with political references – were already banned from appearing at Algeria’s most important book fair, SILA.

An Amnesty International report published in February said that five years after pro-democracy protests broke out in Algeria, the authorities are still cracking down on freedom of expression.

The Hirak protest movement, which began in 2019, led to the overthrow of long-time President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

According to Amnesty International, Algerian authorities have stepped up their crackdown on dissidents since 2021, arresting dozens of people, including journalists, human rights defenders and whistleblowers.

In the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, Algeria ranks 136th out of 180 countries and territories.