The teenagers were originally charged with murder under joint enterprise, a legal principle which allows people to be prosecuted for being party to an offence that they could have foreseen because of their common criminal intentions.

BBC: Gang murdered boy during rush hour at Victoria station

Only then, they argue, will it be protected from measures such as the new law which makes it an offence for a political party to address a rally in Kabylia in Berber.

ECONOMIST: Algeria: Identity crisis | The