L’UNOP dénonce « un acte barbare » – Le Jeune Indépendant

The National Union of Pharmacy Operators denounced, this Sunday, “the cowardly aggression” suffered by the staff of a pharmacy in Bab Ezzouar, in Algiers, while expressing its full solidarity with the victims and their families.

UNOP said in a statement that “our association wishes to denounce, in the strongest terms, this barbaric act that targeted a profession that is essentially peaceful, dedicated to providing relief to the population and meeting its needs for healthcare products as closely as possible, throughout the national territory.” It added that “we finally take this opportunity to express to the pharmacists who were attacked, as well as to their families, the expression of our compassion and our complete solidarity.”

In addition, UNOP expressed its satisfaction with “the speed of the intervention of the security forces and the judicial authorities.” The association also called for “the application of the most severe sanctions provided for by law against this form of delinquency, which has no place in our society.”

It should be noted that the investigating judge at the Dar El-Beida court ordered the provisional detention of the four individuals involved in this attack on the pharmacy staff “for attempted voluntary homicide”, according to the press release from the public prosecutor’s office at the same court, published last Saturday at the end of the day.

After questioning the accused, the investigating judge ordered their placement in provisional detention, the public prosecutor’s office announced, stressing that the maximum penalties provided for such crimes can go as far as the death penalty.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Dar El-Beida court wished to inform the public of the details of this case by reporting the facts in the same press release. Thus, according to the prosecution, it was on July 24, 2024, around 6 p.m., following a call from the command and control center of the security of the wilaya of Algiers, reporting an assault followed by intentional assault and battery with a knife on the staff of a pharmacy, located in the Cité 5-Juillet of Bab Ezzouar, by a group of individuals, that the elements of the judicial police went to the scene of the events. On site, they noted the assault of six victims who suffered more or less serious injuries, who were transported to the hospital to receive treatment. A preliminary investigation was opened and four suspects, members of the same family, including a woman, were arrested, the same source said.

The accused were brought before the public prosecutor last Friday and a judicial investigation was opened against them for attempted voluntary homicide with premeditation, formation and participation in a neighborhood gang, intentional assault and battery with a knife, intentional damage to property belonging to others and attempt to obtain psychotropic drugs by violence. These charges are in accordance with the provisions of the penal code, the law on the prevention and fight against neighborhood gangs, as well as the law on the prevention and suppression of the illicit use and trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances.

Sihem Bounabi