[1] In 1991, he became part of the defense lawyer team defending the case of the arrested leaders of the Islamic Salvation Front, Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj.
He was then detained secretly for over a week, repeatedly beaten and threatened with death,[2] and eventually charged with belonging to a terrorist group.
[3] In December 1998, his conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court; he was kept in prison while awaiting retrial, contrary to Algerian law.
This verdict greatly displeased the Algerian government, which subsequently charged Rachid Mesli with belonging to an "armed terrorist group" operating abroad, issuing an unenforceable arrest warrant.
According to Amnesty International, several Algerians (Tahar Facouli, Brahim Ladada, and Abdelkrim Khider) have been arrested and tortured mainly for being in contact with him.