Ali Belhadj

ALGIERS -- Police in Algeria Tuesday freed the former deputy leader of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), Ali Belhadj, after two days in detention, following his criticism of a late intelligence chief.

"I was released this morning at about 0630 GMT, without being told of any charges," Belhadj said by telephone, adding he had been informed that "the prosecutor could issue a new summons for me at an unspecified date."

Belhadj, whose political party was declared dissolved by the authorities in the 1990s during a civil war pitting military and security forces against Muslim fundamentalist fighters, said he had not been "brutalized or mistreated."

He said that police confirmed during interrogation that he was picked up Sunday at his home because of statements about general major Smain Lamari, the former deputy head of Algerian intelligence, who died after an August 28 heart attack, and was described by Belhadj to an Arab TV station as "a torturer.

"I told the interrogators that I'd criticized a public figure, who headed one of Algeria's main institutions.That's my strict right," said Belhadj, who has spent many years behind bars, and sounded unaffected by his run-in with the police.

Though Belhadj and other key FIS leaders were behind bars on state security charges during the first round of a parliamentary poll in December 1991, their party took such a sweeping lead that, in January 1992, the army intervened to cancel the second, conclusive round of voting.

Within months, Islamist guerrillas began an insurgency against the secular state's political and military establishment, while more radical groups emerged in a decade of civil war, adopting terrorist tactics such as suicide bombings and massacres of inhabitants of villages and hamlets.

Successive regimes still dealt, however, with the FIS they had outlawed, and the party condemned attacks on non-state and military targets.Belhadj said police "questioned me on the offence of usurping identity, because I had signed a statement in my capacity as vice-president of the Islamic Salvation Front.

"I replied that the FIS had never been dissolved by legal means, nor did it lose power after a vote of the people, but through a military coup, and that I don't recognize the authority established by a fait accompli," he said.

Belhadj, renowned as a firebrand preacher, has served long jail terms.He was freed in July 2003 after 12 years behind bars, convicted of state security offences, but was thrown back into prison from July 27, 2005 to March 6, 2006, after speaking out on the Arab Al Jazeera television network about two Algerian diplomats who were kidnapped and later executed in Baghdad.

Opposition parties had urged a boycott of the poll and on Friday Ali Belhadj, the co-founder of the Islamic Salvation Front, was arrested and taken to the interior ministry office before being set free.

The reason for his arrest was unclear.

1989 February- Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj founded the Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut, FIS).
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During the widespread unrest, which followed, the leaders of the FIS, Abbasi Madani and Ali Belhadj, were arrested with several thousands of their supporters.
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September: Madani and Belhadj released from prison and placed under house arrest.
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2003 June - Leader of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) Abassi Madani and his deputy Ali Belhadj are freed after serving 12-year sentences . They are banned from any political activity.

In February 1989, Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj founded the Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut-- FIS).Although the constitution prohibited religious parties, the FIS came to play a significant role in Algerian politics.It handily defeated the FLN in local and provincial elections held in June 1990, in part because most secular parties boycotted the elections.The FLN's response was to adopt a new electoral law that openly aided the FLN.The FIS, in turn, called a general strike, organized demonstrations, and occupied public places.Bendjedid declared martial law on June 5, 1991, but he also asked his minister of foreign affairs, Sid Ahmed Ghozali, to form a new government of national reconciliation.Although the FIS seemed satisfied with Ghozali's appointment and his attempts to clean up the electoral law, it continued to protest, leading the army to arrest Belhadj, Madani, and hundreds of others.

Ali Belhadj, deputy chief of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was arrested in July 2005 following his comments supporting Iraq's insurgents.
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Ali Belhadj, deputy chief of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was arrested in July 2005 following his comments supporting Iraq's insurgents.

The threat of a continued jihad, or holy war against the army prompted the Algerian regime to arrest Abassi al Madani and his second-in-command, Ali Belhadj, on charges of conspiracy against the state.
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Once imprisoned, the deputy director of the Islamic Salvation Front, Belhadj, called for an Islamic uprising against the military junta.He renamed his organization Groupes Islamiques Armes, the Armed Islamic Group, designating as clearly as worlds allow, their allegiance and purpose.
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Ali Belhadj was another of Abassi Madani's partners in crime.He was a Algerian schoolteacher before becoming a leader in the Islamic Salvation Front.Belhadj was the second in command of the Islamic Salvation Front and was known as one of the more violent members of the group.In March 1991, Belhadj was instrumental in organizing a general strike in protest of an electoral law which redistricted seats to favor Algeria's governing regime.For his role in the protests, Belhadj was sentenced to 12 years in jail.

Released in 2003, Belhadj was banned by the Algerian government from taking part in politics.In 2005, Belhadj was re-arrested after allegedly "praising terrorism" in an interview on al-Jazeera.In March 2006, Belhadj was released from prison under a national reconciliation act with Islamic terrorists.
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Abassi al Madani, Abassi Madani, Ali Belhadj, Ahmed Abu Abdullah, Sherif Ghousmi, Mohamed Said, Abderrezak Redjam, Djamel Zitouni

Ali Belhadj, who was freed from prison in 2003 after serving a 12-year-term, was taken to a police station in Algiers, the sources, including a security source, said.

His detention came as Al Qaeda in Iraq said it killed the two Algerian diplomats it had kidnapped last week, according to an Internet statement yesterday.Its authenticity could not be immediately verified.The Interior Ministry was not available for comment.Belhadj told Al Jazeera television in a telephone interview that he "related" to the mujahideen fighting US-led forces and their allies.

"I can't tell the mujahideen what to do but I tell them I relate to them," Belhadj said.Salvation Front's deputy Belhadj was freed in 2003 along with party chief Abbassi Madani.Both men served 12-year terms for threatening state security, and were barred from political activity.Madani has accepted the release conditions imposed in July, while Belhadj has refused.

Belhadj has been detained several times since, for making public statements and for unauthorised movements.