Algeria

The situation for Algerian Christians is rapidly deteriorating - since November 2007, 26 churches have been ordered to close by the Algerian authorities. This equates to half of the country's Protestant churches being shut down in the space of six months. According to Algerian Christians, re-registration is near impossible.

Algeria is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), in which freedom of religion or belief is enshrined, as well as in the Algerian Constitution (Article 36). In practice, however, non-Muslim believers are pressurised to halt their activities.

The media have become increasingly hostile to Christians, warning of campaigns to 'Christianise' Algeria. "I equate evangelism with terrorism," Religious Affairs Minister Ghoulamullah said in a newspaper article in February.

Churches pressured

The Église Protestante d'Algerie (EPA, The Protestant Church of Algeria) was established in the 1970s and is recognised by the government. Their 32 congregations range from a few dozen to more than a thousand members. Since November 2007, 14 of these churches have been ordered to close, while another 20 small fellowships exist independently. Out of these 52 churches and groups that we know of, 26 have been closed by either written order or verbal warning since November 2007.

The authorities have ordered the church closures, relying on a new religion law, 'Ordinance 06-03', published in March 2006 and which came into force in September 2006. This law prohibits any Christian activity from taking place outside of a state-recognised church building.

Religious Affairs Minister Ghoulamullah called on the closed churches to re-register. But Algerian Christians have claimed that the government has blocked them from carrying out the required re-registration of their churches. "The administration offices in Tisi-Ousou did not want to or could not say which measures to take in order to obtain the famous 'certificate of conformity,'" church leaders said. Nevertheless authorities require the certificate to show that a church is in line with the March 2006 law governing non-Muslim places of worship. But because these regulations are unclear, churches are closed and services are forbidden. Expressing the Christian faith in a church service, by worship and prayer, has become almost impossible.

One church was ordered to close down in the second week of March 2008, but the church council decided to re-open and continue church services. On Friday 4 April, seven policemen and one female officer entered this church during a service. While the pastor and elders were praying with church members, just before the end of the service, the police said that the pastor needed to come to the police station right after the service. Although the police officers where very polite and respectful, the interruption pressured the 700-member congregation. At the police station, the pastor was reminded of the judicial order to quit organising services and close down the church.

Individuals pressured

Ordinance 06-03 bans evangelistic material and attempts to evangelise Muslims. Breaking the law can result in fines of up to one million dinars and up to five years in prison. Most detentions or convictions detailed below were made with reference to Ordinance 06-03.

On 3 June 2008 a court in Tiaret, western Algeria, gave four Christians suspended sentences and fines for seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. Rachid Muhammad Seghir received a six-month suspended sentence and a 200,000 Algerian dinars (£1,640) fine. He was originally charged with '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 dinars (£820) fines, according to Djillali while the other two men on trial, Mohamed Khene and Abdelkader Hori, were acquitted.

On 27 May 2008 the six men had their initial hearing and the state prosecutor raised additional charges that the men were holding an 'illegal religious meeting'. As prosecuting lawyer, he suggested each man receive a two-year jail sentence and fine of 500,000 dinars (£4,100).

In mid-May 2008 the men were charged with 'distributing documents to shake the faith of Muslims' after authorities detained them as they left a prayer meeting. The converts were detained overnight at a local police station, where officers repeatedly threatened them for converting from Islam to Christianity.

On 27 May 2008 Habiba Kouider, a former Muslim was in court for 'practising non-Muslim religious rites without a licence'. The Tiaret court postponed delivering the verdict after the trial gained international attention. However, a few days later on 1 June, five police in plain clothes reportedly body-searched and interrogated Habiba for two hours on a street in Tiaret. Habiba was arrested at a checkpoint on 29 March. Carrying six books about Christianity resulted in her being detained at the police station for 24 hours before she was released pending the 27 May court hearing.

On 29 April 2008 a court in Djilfa, 150 miles south of Algiers, handed down a fine of 30,000 Algerian dinars (£250) and a one-year suspended prison sentence to a 33-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity, for 'printing, storing and distributing' illegal religious material. On 25 April, the Christian was stopped at a police roadblock in the vicinity of Djilfa and then detained by officials for five days for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books.

On 2 April 2008 a court in Tiaret convicted a Christian to a two-year suspended sentence for proselytism (evangelism). Authorities brought charges against the man, who requested anonymity, after he reluctantly gave a Bible to an undercover police officer who posed as someone interested in Christianity and insisted that he needed one.

On 21 March 2008 police detained two Algerian Christians for carrying 11 Bibles. The police were searching bags at a routine check-point and found that one Christian was carrying a personal Bible. The other, a church council member, was carrying ten Bibles. The men were held for 24 hours and then released. They are accused of proselytism.

At the end of January 2008, three Algerian Christians were sentenced to three years in prison and given a fine of 500,000 dinars (£4,100) for causing offence to the religion and the person of the prophet of Islam.

In January 2008, French priest Pierre Walles was given a suspended one-year sentence for praying with Christians in a place that was not a registered church building. He was visiting a refugee community that priests have visited for years.

Sources: Open Doors' teams, Compass News Direct