A court in the city of Tiaret 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of the capital Algiers gave Rachid Muhammad Seghir a six-month suspended sentence and a 200,000-dinar (US$3,282) fine on charges of “distributing documents to shake the faith of Muslims.”
Chabane Beikel, Abdelhak Rebeih and Djillali Saibi were each given two-month suspended sentences and 100,000-dinar (US$1,640) fines, trial observers said. Two other men, Mohamed Khene and Abdelkader Hori, were reportedly acquitted.
Speaking to journalists outside the court before the hearing, Seghir defended his actions. "We are Christians and we are not ashamed to say it," he said.
The case has provoked accusations in the West of religious repression in the largely Muslim country of 33 million people, where experts say Christians comprise some 10,000 people. Most of its Christian colonial settler population fled shortly after independence from France in 1962.
AUTHORITIES DENY
Authorities have denied persecution charges. The state-appointed Higher Islamic Council stressed in a statement that “Protestant evangelicals are secretly trying to divide Algerians to colonise the country.” In another case that stirred Western concerns, the prosecutor at the Tiaret court last month demanded a three-year jail term for an Algerian woman, Habib Kouider, for allegedly "practising a non-Muslim religion without authorisation".
Critics argue she was breaking no law simply by practising her religion and pointed out that the constitution guarantees individual religious freedom. Her cases continued Tuesday, June 3. Christian groups have also said the government ordered closures of some two dozen churches in recent months.
Officials defended that policy, citing a 2006 law that limits religious worship to specific buildings approved by the state. They point out that several mosques have also been closed under the same provision.
MINISTRY HAPPY
Larbi Drissi, a lawyer representing the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said: "We are satisfied with the verdicts because at the end of the day what we want is that people, irrespective of their religion, practise religion under the framework of the law."
However Defence lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun disagreed, saying that Tuesday’s verdict "confirms an attitude of lack of respect for freedom of conscience. All the group should have been acquitted."
Christians believe the crackdown is part of an attempt to prevent the spread of Christianity in Algeria, while secular liberals claim that tightening curbs on Christian activity is a headline-grabbing tactic to pander to widespread Islamist sentiment ahead of presidential elections in 2009.
