Algeria convicts 2 for promoting Christianity*

By AOMAR OUALI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; 12:32 PM

ALGIERS, Algeria -- Two converts to Christianity were convicted
Wednesday of illegally promoting their faith in Muslim Algeria and
handed suspended sentences and fines, their lawyer said.

Rachid Mohammed Seghir, 40, and Jammal Dahmani, 36, were sentenced for
"distributing documents that aimed at weakening the faith of Muslims,"
lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun said.

"It's very likely we will appeal," she told The Associated Press by
telephone after leaving the courthouse in Tissemsilt, some 150 miles
southwest of Algiers.

"The accusations were not proven, and the court's decision is not
justified," she said.

Each defendant was given a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of
100,000 dinars ($1,560).

Both are evangelical Protestant Christians and first were prosecuted
when extracts from the Bible and other Christian books were found in one
of their cars in 2007 during a routine check.

They were charged with proselytizing, or trying to spread their faith
among Muslims, as well as praying in a building that had not been
granted a religious permit by authorities.

Only a tiny fraction of Algeria's 34 million people are not Muslim, with
Christians and Jews comprising up to 1 percent of the population,
according to a U.S. government estimate.

Algeria's constitution allows freedom of worship. But a decree approved
by parliament in February 2006 strictly regulates how religions other
than Islam can be practiced.

The text is viewed as primarily targeting Protestant faiths, which have
become increasingly active in Algeria. It provides for jail sentences of
up to five years and a euro10,000 ($15,570) fine for anyone trying to
incite a Muslim to convert to another faith.

The president of the Association of Algerian Protestant churches,
Mustapha Krim, said Wednesday's verdict was "scandalous" because it
infringes on people's freedom of opinion.

Krim called on the 2006 decree "to be radically changed so that
Christians in Algeria can live their faith freely and serenely, like
Muslims."

He told the AP that more than a half-dozen court cases currently target
Protestants in Algeria.

___

Associated Press writer Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report.