Bejaia, May 2018
Merzoug Touati, a 30 years old blogger from Kabylie who was arrested since 22 January 2017 for interviewing Israeli official, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 50,000 Algerian dinar (approximately USD $430) by the Algerian court of Bejaïa of charges ranging from of “providing intelligence to agents of a foreign power,” according to AFP.
“It is utterly shocking that the Algerian authorities have imposed such a heavy sentence on someone solely for expressing his peaceful opinion online” Amnesty said in a statement.
Amnesty added that they reviewed the court documents, which listed as “evidence” the posts published by Merzoug Touati before his Facebook account and website were deleted, and found that there was no incitement to violence or advocacy of hatred. Amnesty International therefore considers Merzoug Touati a prisoner of conscience held solely for expressing his peaceful opinions.
Recently, high profile incidents of crackdown on government critics and those peacefully exercising their right to free speech have been surfacing largely where dozens of dissidents, including Amazigh activists, human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers are imprisoned everyday across the nation.
