Algeria Christians get suspended jail terms

A court in Algeria handed suspended jail terms and fines to two Christians on Wednesday for trying to convert Muslims, a defence lawyer said, in the latest in a series of trials stirring accusations of religious repression.

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", defence 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."

Mustapha Krim, President of the Protestant Church of Algeria, said by telephone: "The verdict is very unfair. I don't understand why people are condemned for their intentions."

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.

Algeria's constitution allows freedom of conscience but a 2006 law strictly regulates how religions can be practised and forbids non-Muslims from seeking to convert Muslims.

Worried by recent state-ordered closures of some churches and prosecutions for proselytism, Christian groups overseas and Algerian liberals have said the government appears to have launched a campaign of persecution against minority Christians.

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. The state-appointed Higher Islamic Council, which regulates religious practice, says Protestant evangelicals are secretly trying to divide Algerians to colonise 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, practise 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 have been closed in the past few months. Several mosques have also been closed under the same provision.

In a case that stirred further concern in the West, the prosecutor at the Tiaret court last month demanded a three-year jail term for an Algerian woman, kindergarten teacher Habiba Kouider, on a charge of "practising a non-Muslim religion without authorisation". Her case continues.