Ramadan 2010, mercredi 11 août, Aïd el Fitr vendredi 10 septembre

[Al-khiyal]

Akbou (Béjaïa) :
Les huit non-jeûneurs d'Ighzer Amokrane relaxés

Lundi 8 Novembre 2010 -- Le tribunal d’Akbou (Béjaïa) a relaxé, lundi 8 novembre, huit non jeûneurs interpellés en août dernier à Ighzer Amokrane dans la même wilaya, a-t-on appris auprès de leur défense. Le procureur avait requis plus tôt dans la matinée de lourdes peines de prison, de deux à cinq ans, à leur encontre. Mais les juges n’ont pas suivi. Le procès s’est déroulé sur fond de rassemblement de citoyens militants pour la liberté de conscience et de culte en Algérie. Parmi eux, des militants du Mouvement pour l’autonomie de la Kabylie (MAK), de la Ligue des droits de l’homme (LADDH) de Bejaia, du collectif SOS Liberté... «C’est une grande victoire pour les droits de l’homme et la liberté de conscience et de culte en Algérie» nous a déclaré Said Salhi, président de LADDH de Bejaia.

[Al-khiyal]

Human rights groups speak of “victory” :
Algerian court acquits nine who broke Ramadan fast

November 8, 2010 -- A court in northeast Algeria on Monday acquitted nine Muslims who were charged with breaking the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan in August, rights activists said after the trial. The prosecutor had urged the court at Akbou in the Kabylie region to jail the men for between two and five years, for "breaching the precepts of Islam," which is the state religion in the north African country. "They have been released," an official of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Said Salhi, told AFP. Algerian police arrested the nine at the end of August at Ighzer Amokrane, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Akbou, while they were drinking coffee together in a closed store, according to one of their lawyers. Outside the courtroom, a large demonstration was organized by human rights groups, political movements and residents of the region, witnesses said. "We're very satisfied. This is a very good ruling, it is a right," lawyer Abderrezak Ammar-Khodja told AFP. "If it had not been for this turnout, they would have been convicted." Salhi also spoke of a "victory" won by "the mobilization of the population in support of the lawyers. Justice has been done."

Several trials have taken place since Ramadan for breaching the precepts of Islam, but a group of lawyers united to form a defense team arguing a case for "freedom of conscience and opinion" under the Algerian constitution. In mid-October, a youth, Fares Bouchouata, was jailed for two years and fined 100,000 dinars (about 1,000 euros / $1,400) for having breached the fast at Oum el-Bouagui, 500 kilometers southeast of Algiers. However, the prosecutor said the young man had also been sentenced for smashing a police station window by banging his head against it, according to the El-Watan Week-end newspaper. Two Christians who broke the fast at Ain el-Hamman in eastern Algeria were acquitted on October 5. The judge in the Kabylie courtroom ruled that there was no case to try because "no article (of law) provides for prosecution" in the event of a breach of Ramadan.