Tissemsilt, ALGERIA (Reuters)
A court in Algeria handed suspended jail terms and fines to two Christians on Wednesday for trying to convert Muslims, a defense lawyer said.
Rachid Seghir and Djallal Dahmani each received suspended six month jail terms and 100,000 dinar ($1,613) fines in the hearing at Tissemsilt town 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Algiers for "distributing documents in order to disrupt the Muslim faith", defense lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun said.
Contacted by telephone after the hearing, Seghir said in brief remarks that he would appeal, adding: "We are disappointed by the verdict but we are not ashamed of our religion."
Algeria's constitution allows freedom of conscience but a 2006 law strictly regulates how religions can be practiced and forbids non-Muslims from seeking to convert Muslims.
The two were convicted in absentia for the same offence in November 2007 but had asked for a new hearing in their presence, as is their right under Algerian law.
Seghir was also convicted of the same offence in a separate trial in June in Tiaret town and handed a six month suspended prison term and a 200,000 dinar fine.
The Christian community is believed to number about 10,000 out of an overwhelmingly Muslim population of 33 million. Most of the country's Christian colonial settler population of up to one million fled shortly after independence from France in 1962.
The government denies persecuting Christians and the state-appointed Higher Islamic Council, which regulates religious practice, says Protestant evangelicals are secretly trying to divide Algerians to colonize the country.
In previous comments on similar court cases, lawyers acting for the state have said that the government's concern is that Algerians, irrespective of their religion, practice religion under the framework of the law.
Under a provision in the 2006 law that limits religious worship to specific buildings approved by the state, more than a dozen churches and several mosques have been closed in the past few months. |
