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| - Veteran Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down a year ago under massive popular pressure, but his resignation did not stop the protest movement. Here is a snapshot of how the year unfolded. On April 2, 2019, Bouteflika resigns following two decades in power, after the powerful army chief, Ahmed Gaid Salah, tells him to stand down. Since February 22 massive protests have been held every Friday, 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 due to a lack of candidates. However, citizens continue to protest massively in central Algiers, joining the weekly demonstrations of the movement dubbed "Hirak". On September 18, the military toughens its line, ordering police to block demonstrators from outside the capital entering Algiers for the weekly marches held every Friday. 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. Their sentences are confirmed on appeal in February 2020. 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, sentences recently confirmed. Other political and business leaders in Bouteflika's circle are also prosecuted. 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. Analysts say participation was considerably lower. The next day Tebboune calls for dialogue with protesters, who nevertheless remain on the streets. On December 23, state TV announces Gaid Salah has died from a heart attack, aged 79. On February 21, Algerians flood the streets of the capital to celebrate the first anniversary of their popular movement. A month later, on March 20, the streets of Algiers are empty on a Friday for the first time since the start of the protest movement. Gatherings are banned due to the coronavirus epidemic, but the Hirak protest movement has in any case independently suspended its demonstrations. Human rights groups say that dozens of protest figures are still in detention. acm/jmy/dwo
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