ALGIERS —
An Algerian activist who had refugee status in
Tunisia but was mysteriously
returned to face trial in Algeria was jailed Friday for three years on terror
charges, a rights group said.
اضافة اعلان
Slimane Bouhafs
“has been sentenced to three years in prison without parole” and a fine of
100,000 dinars ($727), said the National Committee for the Liberation of
Detainees (CNLD).
Bouhafs, in his
50s, was accused of having contacts with Farhat Mehenni, the exiled head of the
Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK) which Algiers classifies as a
“terrorist organization”.
Mehenni, who is
the target of an international arrest warrant, was sentenced twice to life in
prison during trials in Algiers in absentia last November.
Bouhafs and two
co-defendants were tried at the court in the Algiers suburb of Dar El Beida on
charges of belonging to and procuring foreign funds for a “terrorist
organization” and “undermining national unity”.
The CNLD said the
two other defendants, Amazigh (Berber) culture advocate Kamira Nait Sid and
former MAK president Bouaziz Ait Chebib, were handed five-year and three-year
prison terms respectively, without parole.
Bouhafs, a former
police officer who converted to Christianity in the 1990s, was sentenced in
2016 to five years in prison for “insulting Islam”.
Tunisian rights
groups said the UN had given Bouhafs refugee status in September 2020.
But he disappeared
from his home in Tunis on August 25, 2021 in “mysterious circumstances”,
according to Amnesty International and some 40 other rights groups.
Citing Algerian
media, the groups said
Tunisian authorities had handed the 54-year-old over to
Algeria to face trial, several days after his “forced disappearance”.
Amnesty’s
Amna Guellali said it was imperative Tunisia carry out an “impartial and thorough”
investigation into the circumstances of his “kidnapping, forced disappearance
and expulsion” despite his status.
She said it was
“an ominous sign for rights and freedoms in Tunisia”.
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