Algeria: Scheduled Protest on Saturday Set Despite Ban

Mustapha Bouchachi, president of the Algerian Human Rights Defense League, has stated that a scheduled protest for Saturday, February 12th in the capital will go ahead as scheduled.  Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had previously announced that the government would be lifting its state of emergency law that bans protests, however a ban on protests in the capital, Algiers, would remain in place.  Zohra Drif Bitat, president of the upper house in the Algerian parliament, also publicly rebuked Bouteflika’s government for failing to deliver on economic promises and reform but also praised the promised lifting of the emergency law. The weekend saw at least two self-immolation suicide attempts inspired by events in Tunisia.