ALGERIA: Three more churches closed
Algerian authorities have sealed the buildings of three more churches, including the country’s two largest.
Algerian authorities have sealed the buildings of three more churches, including the country’s two largest.
On 26 September, Algerian authorities closed a church building in Tizi Ouzou province, two days after closing another church in the same province.
Christian places of worship continue to be targeted by authorities and churches are closed despite having applied for permits.
Slimane Bouhafs has been released from prison at the end of his twenty-month sentence for “insulting Islam and the Prophet Mohammad”.
An Algerian Christian has been sentenced to five years in prison – the maximum term – and heavily fined for blasphemy against Islam and its prophet. [Update September 2015: the sentence has been reduced on appeal to three years, and the fine has been dropped. The Algerian League for Human Rights says it will take the case to the Supreme Court.]
On 25 May 2011 a judge in Oran, 470 km west of Algiers, convicted Siaghi Krimo of insulting the prophet Muhammad and sentenced him to five years in prison.