Algeria

A group of Christians arrested on Dec. 12 received a reduction in their sentence for “unauthorized worship” last week, one of those convicted said.

On December 1, a Christian convert from Islam received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars (US$716) from an appeals court on a conviction of "accepting donations without a license," he said.

According to sources, less than a week after a court in Algeria ordered pastor Rachid Seighir’s church to close, a judge in a separate case gave him a one-year suspended sentence and a fine for “shaking the faith” of Muslims with Christian literature at his bookstore.

After being released from prison in 2018, having served nearly two years for violating Algeria’s blasphemy laws, Slimane Bouhafs was driven to Tunisia because of further persecution.

The five-year prison sentence on a man who reportedly shared a carton on social media blaspheming Islam’s prophet has been upheld in Algeria.

A pastor and another Christian in Algeria have been convicted and sentenced in absentia to two years in prison and a heavy fine for reportedly shaking the faith” of Muslims with Christian literature at their bookstore.

After sharing a cartoon about the prophet of Islam three years ago, a 43-year-old father of four has been sentenced to five years in prison.

An ordered to close a church was issued last year but according to the church's pastor, he was never told of such an order.