20110515
reuters

Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika will soon release several thousand Islamists from prison to help draw a line under a conflict that killed an estimated 200,000 people, two prominent Islamists told Reuters.

Bouteflika is trying to stop revolts in other Arab countries from spreading to Algeria, and needs to ensure the backing of Islamists, who represent an influential social force.

Most of the thousands jailed during Algeria's nearly two-decade conflict between Islamist insurgents and government forces have already been freed under an amnesty but a hard core did not qualify for release.

Two Islamist leaders who have campaigned for the release said sources in the presidential administration had told them Bouteflika would sign an order freeing the prisoners, who they say number about 7,000.

"We consider the decision that president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the high military hierarchy will take very shortly by granting a general amnesty to prisoners of the national tragedy a good and courageous decision," the two Islamists said in a letter to Bouteflika, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

The letter was signed by Sheikh Abdelfateh Zeraoui, a well-known Salafist preacher, and Sheikh Hachemi Sahnouni, one of the founders of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), a radical Islamist party.

A senior government official, contacted by Reuters, said he did not want to comment on any prisoner release.

The majority of former Islamist militants in Algeria have renounced violence, though a rump of about 1,000 fighters affiliated to al Qaeda is still active.