An Algerian military appeals court on Saturday acquitted three top officials who were jailed in 2019 during mass protests, sources close to the officials said.
The three – two former security chiefs and the younger brother of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika – were given 15-year prison sentences in September 2019 on charges of conspiracy against the state.
Their jailing marked an apparent success for the “Hirak” mass protest movement that took to the streets in early 2019, pushing the army to oust Bouteflika in April that year after 20 years in office.
But many in Hirak said their uprising had not yet achieved its goals of ousting the old ruling elite, forcing the army from politics and ending corruption when the coronavirus
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, elected in December 2019 in a vote the protesters decried as a sham, has sought to placate Hirak by praising the movement as a moment of national renewal and introducing some…