Top Algerian Islamic Leaders Are Freed

Algeria’s top two Islamic leaders were released Wednesday after serving 12-year prison terms. The men -- Ali Belhadj, 47, and Abassi Madani, 72 -- were banned from politics, part of a bid to squelch their influence a year before presidential elections.

Madani and Belhadj headed the now-outlawed Islamic Salvation Front, which nearly rose to power in Algeria’s first multiparty national elections in 1991. The army canceled the second round of the vote, igniting an insurgency that has left an estimated 120,000 civilians, security forces and insurgents dead.

The war continues today; a state of emergency remains in force.

Madani, who is considered to be the strategist, signed the ban. Although Belhadj, a charismatic preacher, refused to sign the order condemning himself and Madani to silence, it is considered legally binding. The order forbids political, cultural or social activity, including charitable work -- once a main function of the Islamic Salvation Front.

However, the pair’s lawyer, Ali Yahia Abdenour, predicted they “will come back politically.”

Crowds pushed and shoved to see Belhadj after his release.

Madani and Belhadj were arrested in 1991 after a general strike led by their party that all but paralyzed military-backed authorities who ran the country since independence from France in 1962. They were convicted of attacking the security of the state.

Many Algerians, particularly families who lost members in the insurgency, hold Madani and Belhadj responsible for the violence.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has made it clear that the question of reviving the Islamic party was “politically closed.”