ALGERIA: Residents near Algiers riot, accusing police of failing to investigate the fatal stabbing of a local man

Record ID: 574081

  • Title: ALGERIA: Residents near Algiers riot, accusing police of failing to investigate the fatal stabbing of a local man
  • Date: 1st February 2012
  • Summary: CHERAGA, ALGIERS, ALGERIA (JANUARY 31, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS MASKED PROTESTERS LOBBING ROCKS AT LINE OF RIOT POLICE PROTESTERS PICKING UP TEAR GAS CANISTER AND THROWING IT AT POLICE PROTESTER THROWING MOLOTOV COCKTAIL AT POLICE LINE POLICEMEN THROWING ROCKS AT PROTESTERS PROTESTER THROWING MOLOTOV COCKTAIL AT POLICE LINE POLICE USING WATER CANNON ON PROTESTERS MORE OF CLASHES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) NEIGHBOUR OF STABBING VICTIM REDOUANE, SAYING: "We are not demanding houses or job or stores, we don't need them. We are sober and pleased with what we have, we were born like this. We only want them to arrest the people they released and to expel the prosecutor - we don't need him anymore. And we won't stop until they arrest them again and we won't stop, we won't stop, God willing we won't stop." VARIOUS OF CLASHES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FATHER OF STABBING VICTIM NOUREDINE AIT OUARETH, SAYING: "We want justice to prevail. There is a suspect number one who brought these clowns this bunch of evils. He has to pay, they must arrest him because he is well known, he is rich, that's all we are asking - the government to do its job and arrest him, he must pay. And it is not us who caused this mess but the officials, this is unacceptable, I only ask them to put in jail those who killed my son." MORE OF CLASHES
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria, Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVABYTFLQNNCY8B2KXUJYZ1IEL1W
  • Story Text: Algerian security forces used water cannon and tear gas on Tuesday (January 31, 2012) to disperse rioting residents in a suburb of the capital who accused the authorities of failing to investigate properly the fatal stabbing of a local man.
    Riots have become a regular occurrence in Algeria, a big exporter of energy to Europe, and it has many of the same problems, including unemployment and a lack of trust in the authorities, that last year sparked revolts in several of its neighbours.
    Hundreds of people threw stones and petrol bombs at gendarmes, or paramilitary police, in Cheraga, about 10 km (six miles) west of Algiers. The protesters briefly blocked a main road through the suburb, Reuters journalists at the scene said.
    The gendarmes forced residents off the main road, but only shifted the rioting into the Sidi Hassan neighbourhood, where the clashes were continuing.
    The unrest in Algeria has so far been localised and uncoordinated, but analysts say the clashes could swell into a national movement, as happened in other north African countries rocked by last year's Arab Spring upheavals.
    Residents in Cheraga said they took to the streets to demand a thorough investigation into the murder of a local man who, they said, was stabbed to death by a gang. They said 10 suspects had been arrested but several of them had been released.
    Some local people accused prosecutors of releasing them because they were from wealthy, well-connected families.
    "We want justice to prevail," said Nouredine Ait Ouareth, the father of the stabbed man. "There is a suspect number one... He has to pay, they must arrest him because he is well known, he is rich."
    "That's all we are asking - the government to do its job and arrest him, he must pay."
    There was no immediate comment by officials on the investigation or the clashes.
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