Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Algeria: Year in Prison for Peaceful Protest - URGENT ACTION before April 20th

Amnesty International

      Activist Abdelali Ghellam was sentenced on 7 March to one year in prison for taking part in an “unarmed gathering” and “obstructing traffic” on a public road, over a peaceful protest outside the Tamanrasset governorate headquarters (wilaya) in December 2015 about a real estate dispute. Abdelali Ghellam is a member of the National Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Unemployed, and a local activist group called Ma Frat (colloquial Algerian Arabic meaning “It has not been solved”). He was also convicted of “offending the President” on Ma Frat’s Facebook page. He has been detained since 2 March, when he was arrested, and is now in Tamanrasset prison. He is a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
Click here for ENTIRE URGENT ACTION.