Deputy leader of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), an Algerian political party. Born to Algerian parents, he became a high-school teacher and an imam. He and the more moderate Abbasi al-Madani registered FIS as a political party in 1989. In 1990 FIS won a majority of votes in local elections; in 1991 the Algerian government announced martial law and imprisoned Belhadj and al-Madani. In 1994 Belhadj was transferred to house arrest; both men were released in 2003.