Ahmed Khalil’s Abduction: HRC calls on Algiers to open investigation

The Geneva-based Human Rights Committee has called on Algeria to launch an effective investigation into the kidnapping of Polisario dissident Ahmed Khalil in downtown Algiers in January 2009.

In a decision dated March 27, 2020 and published on July 27, 2020, regarding the January 2009 kidnapping of dissident and former Polisario official Ahmed Khalil Mahmoud Braih, the Human Rights Committee (HRC) asked Algeria for accountability.

According to the HRC, Algiers must conduct a rapid, efficient, exhaustive, independent, impartial and transparent investigation into this enforced disappearance.

The UN committee also calls for the immediate release of the dissident or the return of his remains to his family, in case he is deceased.

The human rights body also urges Algiers to prosecute the perpetrators of these serious violations and to grant the victim and his family full reparation for the harm suffered.

The Committee asked the Algerian authorities to confirm to it within six months the measures taken to give effect to its requests.

Before his kidnapping, Ahmed Khalil Mahmoud Braih had fallen into disgrace with the leadership of the Polisario Front, because of deep differences.

For decades, Algeria has sheltered on its soil the Polisario and certain Sahrawi tribes who were sequestered in the Tindouf camps.