Algerian police on Wednesday arrested 17 people as they prepared to hold a rally marking bloody pro-democracy protests of 1988, organizers said. As they started arriving near the Mahieddine Bachtarzi National Theatre in the capital Algiers for the annual rally, they were met by plainclothes police.
After being held in various police stations across the Algerian capital the detainees were released.
About 200 people died when protestors clashed with security forces in riots across Algeria on October 05 1988.
