In Algeria, security forces arrested a popular ethnic Berber singer, Boudjemaa Agraw, at an anti-government protest in Bejaia, the largest city in the Berber homeland of Kabylie in the northeastern part of the country, press reports said Monday.
Agraw was participating in a sit-in on Sunday outside a tribunal in Bejaia to call for the release of several tribal leaders and demonstrators facing trial for disturbing the peace, the reports said, adding that two other protesters were also detained.
The detainees were arrested at demonstrations in recent weeks in Kabylie, where riots broke out last year over the death in police custody of a Berber youth, AFP said. Scores of people died in a security forces crackdown.
Meanwhile, last week, eleven people convicted of taking part in last year's riots were given prison sentences of six years.
Sporadic unrest continued in Kabylie, claiming at least seven lives in the months of March and April. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
