Algeria arrests 61 Moroccans over alleged sabotage plot as questions surround evidence

Algerian authorities said they arrested 61 Moroccan nationals accused of preparing acts of sabotage, in a case that has drawn scrutiny over the evidence disclosed publicly and comes amid renewed diplomatic tension between Algiers and Rabat.

Algeria’s General Directorate of National Security, or DGSN, said Sunday that judicial police in Oran had dismantled what it described as a “Moroccan international criminal network” whose members were allegedly preparing acts threatening public security and order.

The group, which authorities said included a former member of the Moroccan military, was arrested in early October. According to the DGSN, the suspects flew to Tunis before entering Algeria clandestinely through mountainous and forested routes around El Kala, near the Tunisian border, and later traveled overland to Oran.

Police said they seized Moroccan passports and sums of money in Moroccan dirhams and euros. The suspects were referred to prosecutors at Oran’s specialized criminal court.

The communiqué did not identify the alleged targets, describe the sabotage being planned or announce the seizure of weapons or explosives. An independent Algerian outlet, Le Matin d’Algérie, similarly noted that authorities had not released further details about the alleged acts or the material evidence supporting the accusations.

Algerian opposition activist Chawki Benzehra told Hespress that he viewed the arrests as part of a recurring pattern in which authorities invoke Morocco during periods of domestic or diplomatic pressure. He questioned the logistics of the account given by police and argued that the large number of arrests appeared designed to provoke an official Moroccan response.

Those claims represent Benzehra’s political interpretation of the case and have not been independently established.

The arrests come against a backdrop of deeply strained Morocco-Algeria relations. Algeria severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 and in 2024 reinstated visa requirements for Moroccan nationals, accusing Rabat of exploiting visa-free travel for criminal and intelligence activities. Morocco rejected those accusations.

The case also arrives weeks before another UN Security Council vote on Western Sahara, the central dispute dividing the two neighbors.

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