Algeria: Activists jailed for Facebook posts

Algerian courts handed down harsh jail terms to three opposition activists over their posts on Facebook, two human rights groups reported.

The court of Cheraga sentenced Soheib Debaghi to one year in prison on charges of calling for protests, contempt for a state body and harming the country’s national interest through his Facebook posts, the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD) reported.

The CNLD, which was created during the Hirak protests of 2019, as well as Amnesty International, also said that Larbi Taher and Boussif Boudiaf were sentenced by another court in El Bayadh to 18 months in prison over posts they published on Facebook.

Boudiaf reportedly spoke about the Algerian “judiciary’s injustice”, his lawyer was quoted by AFP as saying.

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