Amnesty International: Civilian population caught in a... -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 2/13/2001
Last Visited: 5/12/2006
However, two other Islamist political parties, HAMAS (Islamic Society Movement) and Islamic Nahda (Renaissance), which also contravened the same law, were not banned.(2) The FIS president and vice-president (Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj), already detained since June 1991, were sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment in July 1992, and the interim FIS leader (Abdelkader Hachani) was arrested in February 1992.(3) Other top and middle-ranking FIS leaders were also arrested, others fled the country, and the rest went underground.
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3. Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj were arrested after the general strike organized by the FIS in June 1991.They were sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment on charges of undermining state security, sabotaging the economy, and distributing subversive material.In September 1994 they were released from prison and placed under house arrest, but were taken back to prison a few months later.Since the beginning of 1995 Ali Belhadj has been detained in a secret location without any access to his family, lawyers or the outside world.Abbassi Madani was again transferred from prison to house arrest in an undisclosed location, and was subsequently released in July 1997, but was again placed under house arrest in September 1997, after he sent a public letter to the UN Secretary General.Abdelkader Hachani was detained without trial for five and half years; he was eventually brought to trial in July 1997 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but he was released as he had already been detained for longer than the sentence imposed at the trial.