# Amira Bouraoui

Amira Bouraoui (Arabic : أميرة بوراوي born c. 1976) is a French-Algerian political activist. In 2023, the former gynecologist was sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia by the Algerian court for leaving the country while she was under an exit ban. In 2014 she came to prominence for her involvement in the protests against the fourth term of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and later in the Hirak movement.

## Biography

Amira Bouraoui grew up as the daughter of Mohamed Saleh Bouraoui, an Algerian cardiologist and former military officer who was the director of a military hospital in Algiers. Amira Bouraoui later trained as a gynecologist and became involved in political activism as a pro-democracy activist. She additionally holds French citizenship.

### Political activism

In 2014, Bouraoui joined the Barakat movement against the fourth term of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In 2019, she became known for her role in the protests that would become known as the Hirak movement, which led to the resignation of President Bouteflika. Bouraoui later became the host of a talk show on Radio M, an independent radio station in Algeria.
In 2020, she was detained by Algerian authorities and released from Kolea prison in July 2020.
In 2021, Bouraoui was sentenced to two years in jail for "insulting the president" and "offending Islam" for her actions with the Hirak movment. At the time, more than 70 people involved in the Hirak protests were being held in Algerian prisons for their relationship to the protest movement or other cases related to freedom of expression. She remained on remand while an appeal was pending, but banned from leaving the country. In 2022, Radio M was banned in Algeria.

### Escape from Algeria

On February 3, 2023, Bouraoui left Algeria through Tunisia where she attempted to catch a flight to Paris. Bouraoui used her mother Khadidja's passport to enter the country. Upon her arrival at the airport, she was detained by Tunisian authorities and threatened with deportation. Due to being a French-Algerian dual national, she was allowed to proceed to Lyon three days later after being received by authorities at the French embassy in Tunis as well as by representatives from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Bouraoui's flight to France caused a diplomatic incident between France and Algeria, as well as one within Tunisia. The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the following communique,
   The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Community abroad expressed today to the Embassy of France the firm condemnation by Algeria of the violation of national sovereignty by diplomatic, consular and security personnel under the French State who participated in a clandestine and illegal operation of exfiltration of an Algerian national whose physical presence on the national territory is prescribed by the Algerian justice.
   In this official note, Algeria rejects this inadmissible and unacceptable development which causes great damage to Algerian-French relations.
In response, Algeria's ambassador to France, Said Moussi was recalled from his post, and Tunisian president Kais Saied dismissed the country's foriegn minister. After Bouraoui's escape, he mother, sister and cousin were detained by Algerian authorities.

### Trial and conviction

Tunisia later tried Bouraoui in absentia and charged her with illegally entering the country and sentenced her to three months in prison. In November 2023, Bouraoui was sentenced in absentia by authorities in Algeria for "illegally leaving the territory" when she crossed into Tunisia and defied an exit ban. At the time of her sentencing, her mother received a one year suspended sentence for providing her passport, her cousin Yacine Bentayeb, and the taxi driver who drove her across the border, Djamel Miassi, both received six months in prison for supporting her.