Is Algeria really spring cleaning its ‘deep state’?

The trial was fast and efficient: after only four hours, Algeria’s notorious former counter-terrorism chief Abdelkader Ait-Ouarabi, better known as General Hassan, was unceremoniously sentenced to five years in prison.

This was the country’s first prosecution of a high-ranking secret service officer since the 2011 Arab uprisings, and just the most recent visible sign of a concerted effort to remake the Algerian state – and to finally make good on some still unfulfilled presidential promises.