Algerian Pastor Convicted of “Illegal Worship”

An Algerian Pastor by the name Youssef Ourahmane, who is a Christian convert and pastor in the Protestant Church of Algeria, has been sentenced to heavy fines and a prison sentence for the so-called crime of “illegal worship” for leading his church. This was his second appeal in the case. Pastor Youssef, who was born into a Muslim home but converted as a student to Christianity, was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000.
Algerian dinars on 2 July 2023 for his involvement as the leader of his church, although authorities could provide no evidence of a crime. In November 2023, his prison sentence was reduced from 2 years to 1 year. Upholding his conviction in May of this year, the court added an additional 6 months of suspended prison time to his sentence of 1 year imprisonment and fines of 100,000 Algerian dinars.
Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, who has been leading Christian congregations in Algeria for over 30 years, appealed his conviction for illegal worshipping in his church on 26th March 2024, the date of his 36th wedding anniversary. Pastor Youssef is one of the leading figures in evangelism and growing the church in Algeria, with a group whose 43 churches have beenforcibly closed by the Authorities since 2019, leaving only one with its churches open today. Over the past five years, security police in Algeria, with orders from the Ministry of Interior,systematically alleged that the denominations’ church buildings were in violation of various “health and safety” codes. These alleged building code violations, they claimed, justified putting locks over the doors and declaring worship inside the buildings to be illegal.
Pastor Youssef has faced baseless criminal prosecutions for his peaceful Christian activities since 2008. He is only the latest person out of 50 Christians to have been convicted by the Courts over the past few years, under the vague offences of “shaking the faith” of Muslims, illegal worship, or embezzling of tithing donations. The convictions are thought to be areaction to the large numbers of local Christian converts in the country. Algeria’s penal and information codes criminalise blasphemy, with punishments including imprisonment for up to five years and fines. The Criminal Code also censors publications by prohibiting content that is “contrary to Islamic morals”. In particular, the government has systematically cracked down on the Evangelical Protestant Church through church closures and raids.