Algiers: An Algerian military court has detained a prominent left-wing politician as it investigates an alleged plot against the country’s leadership.
A statement from the Workers Party says its general secretary Louisa Hanoune was ordered held in custody Thursday at the military court in Blida.
The statement says Hanoune is being questioned as a witness in an investigation into the former president’s brother Saeed Bouteflika and two former intelligence bosses.
Several tycoons have also been targeted in a corruption crackdown.
The outspoken Hanoune has been a fixture on Algeria’s political scene since 1991, and her detention shocked many.
The party called it “counter to the Algerian people and their revolutionary mobilization.”
A peaceful uprising helped push longtime leader Abdul Aziz Bouteflika from power last month, but new protests took place on Friday.
Meanwhile, an Algerian state television presenter has been fired after slamming the media’s role in supporting the regime of Bouteflika and pushing for greater freedoms, colleagues said Thursday.
Abdul Razzak Siah, who hosted the evening news on the A3 channel, was dismissed by the outlet’s management on Saturday, Canal Algeria reporter Abdul Majid Benkaci told AFP.
Demonstrators in the north African country are pressing for sweeping reforms after Bouteflika resigned last month in the face of huge protests.
At an event on April 29, Siah lambasted broadcasters for their slavish backing of the veteran’s 20-year rule and called for a freer media.
“Public television was not the mouthpiece for the state but the mouthpiece for corruption,” he said.
“Our main mission is to provide a public service, and I call on all television journalists and young people from the protest movement to peacefully support our fight.”
After protests erupted across Algeria in February journalists from state media denounced “pressure” from their bosses to refrain from reporting on the demonstrations.
