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Algerian dissident Rachid Nekkaz, who was released in January with a presidential pardon and who suffers from cancer, announced that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had ordered the lifting of the travel ban on him to the United States, where his family is located, to receive treatment, according to a message to AFP on Saturday (March 25th). 2023.
“After 1,200 days of imprisonment, house arrest, and a ban on leaving the country, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune finally ordered the lifting of the ban on leaving the national territory imposed on Rachid Nekkaz since 2019,” Nekkaz wrote.
Nakaz thanked President Tebboune for responding to a letter he sent last week, “asking him to intervene personally so that he can leave the country legally and undergo surgery as soon as possible.”
The Algerian dissident explained in this letter that he had a serious eye disease and prostate cancer.
Because he was prevented from leaving the country, he wrote that he is still “under police residence” in Chlef (northwest) and “has been prevented from leaving the country” since his release from prison, he said.
Nekaz was released on January 18 for “humanitarian reasons” after he was sentenced to five years in prison in July 2022 for calling for a boycott of the 2019 presidential elections.
His release came two weeks after he announced his renunciation of political life in a letter he prepared from his cell and delivered to his relatives.
In this message, which was published on January 2 on Facebook, he said that he wrote to Tebboune on December 10 to “officially” inform him of his decision.
He also indicated that he wanted “to devote himself to treating his health problems, to writing, and to his family…”.
Prior to his arrest in May 2021, Nekkaz was imprisoned from December 2019 to February 2021, specifically on charges of “inciting violence through social networks.”
