Algeria Designates Two Foreign-Based Political Groups as Terrorist

Algeria on Tuesday designated the Kabylie separatist group (MAK) and religious movement Rachad as terrorist organizations, the presidency announced.

The country’s High Security Council based its decision on “hostile and subversive acts” carried out by the two foreign-based groups in an attempt to “destabilize the country and damage its security,” it said in a statement.

In March, an Algiers court issued international arrest warrants for Rachad co-founder Mohamed Larbi Zitout, 57, a former Algerian diplomat living in Britain, and three activists accused of joining the organization.

The group stands accused of infiltrating and inciting violence within the ranks of the Hirak anti-government protest movement.

The banned Paris-based Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie was accused in April of planning attacks in Algeria, a charge it denies.

The Defense Ministry is “seriously deviated by publishing a statement accusing the Kabylie independence movement, without any evidence, of planning terrorist attacks,” the group stressed.

It was established in wake of the so-called “Amazigh Spring” in 2001. Algerian authorities accuse it of being a separatist movement and of being “racist” against Arabs.

On Tuesday, French police arrested MAK chief in exile Ferhat Mhenni in Paris on charges of money laundering. He was released later that day.