CAIRO — Algeria's largest Islamic insurgency group has again ignored
an amnesty offer by President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika.
Algerian sources said no more than several dozen members from the
Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call responded to the passage of a
referendum for amnesty. They said about 25 suspected insurgents
approached authorities after the amnesty referendum on Sept. 29.
Under the amnesty offer, insurgents who surrender their weapons would be
eligible for a pardon or commutation of any prison sentence. The exceptions
were those accused of murder or rape.
The Salafist Brigade has been responsible for about 90 percent of
Islamic attacks in Algeria. The sources said most of the 1,000 wanted
Islamic fugitives came from that organization, regarded as the leading
contractor for Al Qaida.
The Bouteflika regime has released nearly 7,000 prisoners during the
Islamic holiday of Id El Fitr last week, many of them said to have been
linked to the Islamic insurgency movement. The sources said authorities have
also suspended plans to prosecute the No. 2 figure in the Salafist Brigade,
Amari Saifi, known as Abdul Razik the paratrooper.
Abdul Razik, a former paratrooper in the Algerian Army, was captured in
2004 in Mali and brought to Algeria for trial. Islamic sources said he was
to have been put on trial over the coming weeks, but authorities canceled
the prosecution to examine whether he could benefit from the amnesty offer.
The sources said Abdul Razik, commander of the so-called Fifth District,
has been accused of murder and kidnapping. In 2003, Abdul Razik was said to
have led a Salafist squad that abducted 32 European tourists in the Sahara
Desert.
