By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent
ALGIERS (Worthy News) - Christians in Algeria have appealed for prayers after an appeals court sentenced a prominent pastor to one-year imprisonment related to organizing “unauthorized worship” in the Islamic nation.
Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, vice-president of the Église Protestante d’ Algérie (EPA) association of some 45 Protestant churches, was also fined about $735 in local currency, trial observers said.
“The charges are based on two articles of the 2006 ordinance regulating non-Muslim worship. The appeal court added an additional six months suspended prison sentence,” advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC) explained.
Christians told Worthy News that the prison sentence is suspended pending a further appeal to the Supreme Court.
The pastor, who leads the House of Hope church in Aïn Turk in northwest Algeria’s Oran province, “was not informed of the original court hearing or verdict, which was two years in prison and a fine until mid-September 2023,” MEC said.
“An appeal verdict, announced on November 27, [last year] reduced the sentence to one-year imprisonment. The current appeal was heard on 23 April 2024,” MEC added, but details of the trial just emerged.
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
The criminal investigation against the pastor began in March 2023 when several Christian families spent three days holiday in a church compound under his supervision, Christians said.
The small church in the compound had apparently been sealed in 2019 by an order from the governor of the province where the gathering took place, according to Christians familiar with the case.
The legal wrangling comes while Pastor Youssef Ourahmane oversees churches and Bible schools in several areas of the North African nation, in addition to his task as EPA vice president.
Christians said the possible jail time for the pastor marks a further escalation of an ongoing government-backed campaign “to close Protestant churches” and harass leaders since 2017. “Only a handful of churches are still open. Several Christians, especially church leaders, have faced court cases on different charges,” MEC added.
In comments shared with Worthy News, Christians in Algeria urged believers to pray “for Pastor Youssef and his family to know the comfort of the Father.”
They also asked for prayers for other churches,
Christian leaders The Christians also pray that the “government campaign against the Church and Christians [will] cease,” as Christians want to “live in peace and freedom.”
ALGERIAN CONVERTS
Advocacy group Open Doors suggested that “most Algerian Christians are converts“ from Islam.
“They face harassment and discrimination in their daily lives, and their families and community may try to force them to continue to adhere to Islamic norms and practices,” the group noticed.
“They also face pressure – from both the government and their surrounding communities – to renounce their faith in Jesus and return to Islam. Many choose to keep their faith secret,” Open Doors added.
The advocacy group has ranked Algeria 15th on its annual World Watch List of 50 countries where Open Doors says Christians face the most persecution for their faith.
Christians are a tiny minority in Algeria, comprising 144,000 (0.3 percent) of the country’s mainly Sunni Muslim population of just over 46 million, according to Open Doors estimates, though the actual figure could be higher.