ALGIERS – A military appeals court in Algeria on Saturday cleared the brother of the country’s longtime former leader, two ex-intelligence chiefs and the leader of a leftist political party who had all been accused of plotting against the state.Among the four defendants was Said Bouteflika, the brother and once-powerful special counsellor of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who forced to resign from office in April 2019 amid growing peaceful street protests.
The others were former intelligence figures Gen. Athmane Tartag and Gen. Mohamed Mediene, who was known Toufik — a name that once made Algerians tremble — and the leader of a leftist political party, Louisa Hanoune, for decades a fixture on Algeria’s political scene.