| schema:articleBody
| - Algeria, which on Sunday holds a constitutional referendum, has since early 2019 been rocked by popular protests that continued after they forced veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down. The referendum will coincide with the anniversary of the start of the North African country's 1954-1962 war of independence against colonial power France. On April 2, 2019, Bouteflika resigns following two decades in power, after the powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah tells him to quit. Massive protests have been held every Friday since February 22, sparked by the ailing 82-year-old's announcement that he would stand for a fifth term. While crowds cheer his departure, they again fill the streets on April 5, to keep pushing for the total dismantling of the system in place since independence from France in 1962. Upper house speaker Abdelkader Bensalah is on April 9 named interim president. Opposition parties refuse to confirm his nomination. Gaid Salah emerges as the key powerbroker and on May 20 rejects protesters' key demands that an election planned for July 4 be postponed and that regime stalwarts depart. But the constitutional council on June 2 cancels the election for lack of candidates. However, citizens continue to protest massively in central Algiers, joining the weekly Friday demonstrations of the movement dubbed "Hirak". On September 18, the military toughens its line, ordering police to block demonstrators from outside Algiers entering the capital for the marches. On September 25, a military court sentences Bouteflika's brother Said and two former intelligence chiefs to 15 years in prison for "conspiring" against the state. In December, former prime ministers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, who were both close to Bouteflika, get 15 years and 12 years respectively in corruption trials. On December 12, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a one-time prime minister under Bouteflika, wins a presidential election, on an official turnout of less than 40 percent. The next day Tebboune calls for dialogue with protesters, who nevertheless remain on the streets. On December 23, Gaid Salah dies from a heart attack, aged 79. On January 31, 2020, Algerians flood the streets of the capital to celebrate the 50th consecutive Friday demonstration. However, on March 20, the streets of Algiers are empty on a Friday for the first time since the start of the protest movement due to the coronavirus epidemic. On March 29, journalist Khaled Drareni, correspondent for French-language TV5 Monde, is taken into custody for covering a demonstration. On September 15, in a ruling that causes shock, he is jailed for two years on appeal for "inciting an unarmed gathering" and "endangering national unity". The trial comes against a background of increased repression of Hirak activists, political opponents, journalists and bloggers. On September 10, parliament adopts draft constitutional reforms, a Tebboune initiative aimed at responding to the demands of the protest movement. The draft is rejected by a group of parties and associations linked to Hirak. acm/jmy/eab/fz
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)