Zakaria – also known as “Zaki” – Hannache is an Algerian Amazigh human rights defender. Since 2019, he has been documenting the arrests and prosecutions of prisoners of conscience, particularly in relation to the peaceful protest movement known as Hirak. He became one of the main sources of information on the arbitrary detention of prisoners of conscience in Algeria, for local and international civil society, as well as for the UN human rights mechanisms.
On February 18, 2022, Hannache was arrested at his home by plainclothes police officers and taken to the police station on Dr Saadane Street in Algiers. An arrest warrant and a search warrant were presented by police officers, who searched his house and seized his phone. They also looked for an award he had received for his work in December 2021 and the financial reward that had accompanied it.
While in police custody, between February 18 and 24, 2022, Hannache was questioned, without the presence of a lawyer, about his work as a human rights defender, as well as about publications he had allegedly made online and his relationship with other human rights defenders and international human rights organisations. He was also questioned about conversations he had with the team of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
On February 24, 2022, Hannache was brought before the investigating judge at the Sidi M’hamed Court and charged with, among others, “praising terrorism”, “receiving funds from an institution inside or outside the country” and “undermining state security”. He was placed in pre-trial detention the same day.
On March 7, 2022, Hannache began a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary nature of his detention, which he ended when he was conditionally released on March 30, 2022. After his release, Hannache continued to face significant intimidation in Algeria, prompting him in August 2022 to travel to Tunisia where he sought medical support.
On November 9, 2022, Hannache was informed that he was summoned by the investigating judge to appear before the court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers for a hearing scheduled for November 13. The next day, he applied for asylum with the UNHCR in Tunisia.
On November 13, 2022, Hannache’s lawyer filed a request for postponement of the hearing on medical grounds, which was granted. Hannache was informed that the Tunisian police came looking for him at two different locations in Tunis over the next two days, raising fears that they were trying to arrest him.
Tunisian authorities must under no circumstances repeat the dangerous precedent set by the kidnapping and refoulement of Algerian refugee Slimane Bouhafs on August 25, 2021, about which no investigation has been opened to date in Tunisia. For this reason, on November 28, 2022, MENA Rights Group and a Tunis-based human rights researcher submitted a request for interim measures to the UN Committee against Torture, citing a possible violation of the principle of non-refoulement should Tunisia return Hannache to his country of origin. On December 5, 2022, the Committee asked Tunisia not to expel Hannache while the request is being examined.
On September 21, 2023, Hannache was able to leave Tunisia. He was then able to successfully reach a safe country later on. As a result, MENA Rights Group asked the UN Committee against Torture to close his case on the grounds that he is no longer at risk of being deported to Algeria.
