COMMITTEE OF SUPPORT FOR DR. SALAH EDDINE SIDHOUM
c/o Algeria-Watch
21 B, street Voltaire, 75011 Paris
sidhoum_soutien@algeria-watch.org

To contact the committee:
Mr. Mehdi Mosbah (France): 00 33 6 61 47 68 78 (French)
Mr. Ahmed Manai (France): 00 33 1 69 44 21 52 (Arabic)
Mr. Anouar Koutchoukali (Netherlands): 00 31 30 236 93 86 (English)

Press Release No. 5 , Paris, October 16, 2003

Dr. Sidhoum has been acquitted and released

Dr. Sidhoum appeared today before the criminal court of Algiers after he had appealed against the judgement and sentence made against him in 1997, which had condemned in abstentia him to 20 years of prison for ‘membership of a terrorist group’. He has been acquitted and released.

The trial was public. There were three foreign observers: Me Mohammed Abbou on behalf of the Sidhoum Support Committee and the Arab Commission of Humans Rights, Me Samir Ben Amor for Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International ,and Mr. Tabib Chawki on behalf of the Human Rights Defenders Watch. Many journalists and human rights activits were also present. During the hearing, the public prosecutor called for seven years of prison, while eleven lawyers pleaded against the charges arguing, in particular, that they were completely unfounded.

Because Dr Salah-Eddine Sidhoum, an orthopeadic surgeon, had been denouncing untiringly serious human right violations since the 1992 military coup, he was the target of a smear campaign in 1994, an attempted murder by death squads in the same year, and in 1997 the regime sentenced him in abstentia to twenty years of prison. After nine years of life underground, Dr Sidhoum decided to give himself up to the judiciary on September 29, 2003, to appeal against the judgement made against him in 1997. In Algerian internal law, there is no way of appealing against a judgement made in abstentia other than arrest or surrender.

After he had given himself up to the judiciary, the prosecutor ordered his detention in the infamous Serkaji prison in Algiers. Dr Sidhoum started a hunger strike right away, in order to assert his rights as a political prisoner, and obtain the guarantee for a speedy, fair and public trial, in addition to other rights such as visits and access to books, newspapers, a radio, etc.

In response, the administrators of the prison ordered disciplinary measures against him, including throwing him into a cold, wet, rat- and lice-infested dungeon with 24 hours a day blinding light, in the basement of the prison. Dr Sidhoum hardened his hunger strike, refusing even drink, to protest against these sanctions, and obtain access to the external world (family, lawyers, social and medical services, human rights nongovernmental organizations).

On Thursday October 9, Salah-Eddine Sidhoum broke down, after he had developed pneumonic angina. He was taken to the infirmary where he was put under perfusion, and was compelled to stop his total hunger strike, absorbing water and sugar. He learned two days later that his trial was scheduled for October 16, 2003, two months earlier than the date given to him by the public prosecutor.

Today he has been acquitted, and he is free at last.

The committee of support thanks all those, in Algeria and all over the world, who contributed to the international campaign for the release of Dr. Sidhoum. It is an enormous victory for Dr. Sidhoum and all those who are committed to truth and justice.

For further information please consult the documents relating to the campaign for the release of Dr. Salah-Eddine Sidhoum:
http://www.algeria-watch.org/fr/mrv/mrvrepr/sidhoum/sidhoum.htm