Algerian authorities must release immediately and drop all charges against several members of the Ahmadi minority religious group, who were arrested recently for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of religion, said Amnesty International in a press release issued over the weekend. “The Algerian authorities have legal obligations to respect, protect, promote and fulfill the right to freedom of religion of everyone in the country which includes those with religious beliefs that are different to the majority. In its 2022 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan U.S. government advisory body, has recommended Washington to maintain Algeria on the U.S. Department of State’s Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe religious freedom violations. The USCIRF, which monitors and reports on religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State and Congress, deplored the deteriorating religious freedom conditions in Algeria with the government increasingly enforcing blasphemy laws and continuing to restrict worship. The Algerian authorities have also maintained the closure of dozens of Protestant churches, and charged religious minorities with illegally gathering while not providing a legal path for them to worship collectively.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 14, 2022 13:48 UTC