KAMIRA
NAIT SID

Background and Work

Kamira Nait Sid is co-president of the World Amazigh Congress, an international non-governmental organisation focused on the defence and promotion of the rights of Amazigh communities. The Amazigh people, also known as Berbers, are indigenous to North Africa, and their linguistic and cultural rights have long been contested in states where Arabic is the dominant language of government and public life.

The Congress operates as an advocacy platform at the international level. It submits alternative reports to United Nations treaty bodies and special procedures, addressing issues of racism, discrimination, political and linguistic rights, women's rights, and children's rights. Kamira Nait Sid's role involved coordinating that advocacy, representing the organisation in consultations, and working with other civil-society actors across the region and in diaspora.

The Arrest and Enforced Disappearance

On 24 August 2021, Algerian security forces arrived at Kamira Nait Sid's home in Draa-Ben-Khedda, a town in the Tizi Ouzou province of northern Algeria. She was taken into custody without a warrant and without being informed of the legal basis for her detention. Her family was given no information about her whereabouts.

For three days she was held at an unknown location, with no access to legal counsel and no contact with relatives. This period constituted an enforced disappearance under international law. On the morning of 1 September 2021, she was brought before the Public Prosecutor and later presented to an investigating judge at the Sidi M'Hamed Court in Algiers. She was accompanied by her lawyers at that hearing.

The charges filed against her included undermining national unity and state security and belonging to a terrorist organisation, under Article 87 bis of the Penal Code. These offences carry penalties ranging from ten years' imprisonment to life imprisonment, and in certain cases the death penalty. The prosecution alleged that she was affiliated with the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie, a political group that the Algerian government designated as a terrorist organisation in May 2021. Kamira Nait Sid denied the allegation.

Detention Conditions

Following her appearance before the judge, Kamira Nait Sid was remanded in custody at Kolea Prison in Tipaza province, west of Algiers. She remained in pretrial detention for more than a year while the investigation and prosecution proceeded. The conditions of her confinement and any restrictions on family or legal visits during this period have not been publicly documented in detail.

Legal Proceedings

In December 2022, the court of first instance convicted Kamira Nait Sid and sentenced her to five years in prison. She was also fined 100,000 Algerian dinars, approximately 660 euros. The charges included belonging to a terrorist organisation, receiving funds from abroad for political propaganda, hate speech and discrimination, using technology to spread false information, and conspiracy. Her co-defendant, Slimane Bouhafs, a Christian minority-rights advocate and refugee who had been forcibly returned to Algeria from Tunisia, received a three-year sentence on similar charges.

Both defendants appealed. On 4 July 2023, the Algiers Court of Appeal upheld the convictions but reduced Kamira Nait Sid's sentence to three years, matching that of Bouhafs. The fine was confirmed. The defence argued throughout that the prosecution had failed to present evidence supporting the charges and that the proceedings violated guarantees of due process and fair trial. The court did not accept those arguments.

The two cases were linked by the prosecution's central claim: that both defendants were connected to the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie. Both denied any such connection. Their lawyers maintained that the charges were politically motivated and that the trial was used as a tool to silence advocacy on behalf of marginalised communities.

Release

Kamira Nait Sid completed her three-year sentence and was released from Kolea Prison on 1 September 2024. Slimane Bouhafs was released the same day. She had been detained continuously since her arrest in August 2021. Her conviction remains in force.