Ten International NGOs today sent a joint open letter to French Prime Minister, François Fillon, requesting that Dr Mourad Dhina, Alkarama's Executive Director and a leading figure in the Algerian political opposition, not be extradited to Algeria, where he faces potential arbitrary detention and torture.

Dr Dhina was arrested on 16 January 2012 at Paris-Orly airport by French police responding to an international arrested warrant issued by the Algerian authorities in 2003, which claims that he belonged to an armed terrorist group active in Zurich and in Switzerland during the late 90s.

"Dr Dhina's alleged membership to an armed terrorist group is laughable," said Abbas Aroua, a member of Alkarama's Board, "the accusations made by the Algerian authorities are unfounded and purely motivated by a desire to silence Dr Dhina's continued criticism of corruption, absence of democratic framework and human rights abuses at the hands of the Algerian authorities."

Background

Following a PhD from MIT, Dr Dhina moved to Switzerland in the 1980s to take up a post doing research with Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology, conducting regular experiments at CERN, in Geneva.

Following the 1992 coup d'état and the banning of the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), which one the elections, Dr Dhina joined the party as a form of protest. In 2002, he was elected spokesperson of Executive Office of the FIS, resigning in 2004.

In 2007, Dr Dhina became Executive of Alkarama, a Swiss foundation working on human rights in the Arab world. The same year he helped establish Rachad, an Algerian opposition group which promotes the establishment of the rule of law, respecting civil and political rights and good governance in the country.

The Swiss authorities have regularly received requests from the Algerian authorities to extradite Dr Dhina, accusing him or terrorism, requests which the Swiss have always refused to implement because of the political nature of such a move.

Open letter

In the open letter, Alkarama and nine other French and international human rights NGOs urge French Prime Minister Fillon to refuse the Algerian's request to extradite Dr Dhina, as the request is "motivated by a desire to muzzle him because of his political activities as a member of Rachad and his human rights activities with Alkarama", as stated in the letter. The organizations also stated that "Dr Dhina's extradition would violate France's obligations under the UN's Convention against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights."

Since Dr Dhina's arrest, Alkarama has been flooded with messages of support and indignation at his continued detention. In response, Alkarama launched a "virtual sit-in" on 19 January, calling on people across the world to post pictures of themselves holding a #FreeMourad poster on Alkarama's Facebook. Dozens of people have already uploaded their pictures.

"The virtual sit-in proves how many people truly believe in Dr Dhina's innocence," said Rachid Mesli, Alkarama's Legal Director "Indeed, it goes without saying that the charges laid against Dr Dhina are fictitious and that he should be released immediately."

In addition to the virtual sit-in, Alkarama and the other groups supporting Dr Mourad have launched www.FreeMourad.org, a dedicated website campaigning for Dr Dhina's release.

Current situation

On Tuesday 17 January 2012, the President of Paris' Court of Appeals confirmed that Dr Dhina was being held in view of his potential extradition to Algeria and that the Algerian authorities have 30 days to present the case for his extradition. 8 days after his arrest, Dr Mourad Dhina remains detained at La Santé Prison in Paris.

To participate in the Virtual Sit In:

1. Print #FreeMourad poster http://goo.gl/pKdgO

2. Take picture of yourself, and your friends holding the poster

3. Post it on Alkarama's facebook page http://goo.gl/svESQ