Sentenced in absentia in Tunisia: Three months in prison against Amira Bouraoui
By: Hana saada
ALGIERS– A Tunisian court has pronounced a three-month firm prison sentence in absentia against Amira Bouraoui for illegally crossing borders, Tunisian radio Mosaïque FM reported today.
Amira Bouraoui, who was banned from leaving Algeria after her release from prison, entered Tunisia by land last month before being smuggled out by air to France.
In Algeria, the prosecutor’s office of the specialized criminal center of Constantine placed, on Tuesday evening, four people in pre-trial detention and a fifth under judicial supervision as part of the investigation, opened on February 8, into the “illegal” exit from Algeria of Amira Bouraoui, while she was under ISTN (prohibition to leave the national territory).
The Public Prosecutor said, in a statement, that preliminary investigations revealed that Bouaroui left Algeria illegally, helped by a gang specializing in illegal emigration, including a taxi driver and an official at the border post.
The clandestine and illegal exfiltration of Amira Bouraoui to French soil was “firmly” condemned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Algerian National Community Abroad for “violation of national sovereignty”. And this “by diplomatic, consular and security personnel of the French State”.
Algeria has rejected this “unacceptable and unspeakable” development which causes “great damage” to Algerian-French relations. The Presidency of the Republic has recalled the Algerian Ambassador to France for consultation with immediate effect.
