After spending his first night in Oued Ghir prison near Béjaïa, our comrade Lyes Touati, a leading member of our party, the PST (Parti Socialiste des Travailleurs) which has been arbitrarily suspended for nearly 4 years, was visited this morning by his two lawyers.
Although he is outraged and indignant at his arbitrary imprisonment, he has not lost his legendary smile despite the deep sense of injustice [hogra in Arabic].
The examining magistrate could, at worst, have placed him under judicial supervision in view of the unfounded and fabricated accusations made by the security services who, particularly in this case, have demonstrated their manifest political incompetence. Apart from the repercussions of this repressive detention order, which is devoid of any common sense, accusing our comrade Lyes Touati of sympathy for the MAK is quite simply a joke in bad taste that makes you smile. Worse still, this accusation is an intolerable insult to his militant career and the nobility of his political struggle. Lyes Touati is a socialist, anti-capitalist and internationalist activist!
His membership of the Socialist Workers' Party - PST cannot be overlooked or ignored by the security services. His name appears among the delegates elected to our party's national leadership (Central Committee) at the last PST congress, held on 24 April 2021, and whose list was forwarded by the bailiff to the Minister of the Interior the following day.
The arrest of Lyes Touati on 14 December in a café in Aokas coincides with the tensions provoked by the so-called ‘declaration of independence of Kabylia’, which we have firmly condemned. We condemn it not only from a political and democratic point of view, since it goes against the will of the people, particularly in Kabylia, but also because of the obvious links between Farhat Mhenni and his MAK with the criminal Zionist entity, with the reactionary and dictatorial Moroccan and Emirati regimes, and with the imperialist powers that are using it against the national sovereignty of the Algerian people and to impose their economic and geopolitical diktats on our country.
In any case, on this Wednesday morning, our comrade Lyes Touati had not lost one iota of his good humour, his usual sense of humour and his militant determination. His morale is excellent.
However, he was distressed by the situation of dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience who have been languishing in this prison for several months just for a comment or sometimes a like on Fcb.
On the other hand, his main concern in the face of this unspeakable denial of justice is above all the state of his mother's health and the social situation of his family, for whom he was the main support after the death of his father.
As for the legal proceedings under way, this morning our two lawyers submitted a request for provisional release for our comrade Lyes Touati. This could be scheduled for consideration by the indictment division next Tuesday if it is forwarded promptly by the examining magistrate. Otherwise, the application will be examined ex officio on the following Tuesday.
Lyes Touati salutes the tremendous outpouring of solidarity at local, national and international level that has been shown to him from the very first minute of the arbitrary decision to imprison him.
Thank you for your unfailing solidarity.
- Stop the arbitrariness and repression!
- Freedom for our comrade Lyes Touati!
- Freedom for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience!
- Long live democratic and trade union freedoms!
The struggle continues!
17 December 2025