By Anzar Atrar and David Karvala

At 4 am on Saturday 21 August, Spanish authorities took Mohamed Abdellah —along with around 30 other Algerians— from the migrant custody centre in Barcelona and deported him. This was bad news for all of them, of course. But Abdellah, an Algerian anti-corruption activist and whistle-blower, was wanted by the military authorities in his country.

Abdellah’s arrest on 12 August, when he had gone to renew his asylum request in Vitoria in the Basque country, where he had been living with his wife and two small children, had provoked protests among the Algerian diaspora around the world. The news that Spain had denied him asylum and sent him back to his persecutors provoked widespread anger.

Let us look at the background to all this.

Hirak

Algeria is experiencing its most serious political crisis since its independence from French colonisation in 1962.

As MENA Solidarity…