Amnesty International has asked the Algerian authorities to release a blogger who faces the death penalty on “espionage charges.”
In a post early last year, Merzoug Touati interviewed an Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson in which he disputes accusations by the Algerian authorities that the Israeli authorities were involved in protests in Algeria.
The trial of Touati “on trumped-up espionage charges based on online posts is yet another stain on the country’s human rights record,” Amnesty International said on Wednesday on the eve of the opening hearing.
Touati, 32, “faces charges relating to a Facebook post and YouTube video that authorities claim encouraged civil unrest. He has been in detention since January 2017,” it said.
“Amnesty International has reviewed the court documents which list as 'evidence' the posts published by Touati before his Facebook account and website were deleted, and found that there was no incitement to violence or advocacy of hatred, rather his posts were covered by freedom of expression in relation to his work as a citizen-journalist,” according to the US-basked human rights organization.
“Amnesty International therefore considers Merzoug Touati a prisoner of conscience held solely for expressing his peaceful opinions,” it said.
Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa regional director at Amnesty International, said that every day “Touati spends in prison ... is a further stain on Algeria’s human rights record.”
“It is ludicrous that a Facebook post expressing peaceful opinion could lead to the death penalty. Touati represents the broken dreams of a generation in a country where freedom of expression has been repeatedly undermined,” she added.
