Algerian Court Sentences Protest Leader to Prison Term

A court in Algiers has sentenced anti-government activist Amira Bouraoui to a year in prison on several charges, including “insulting” President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Islam. According to press reports, Bouraoui, a 44-year-old gynecologist, was arrested on June 17 following several posts on social media. A longtime anti-government activist, she has emerged as one of the high-profile figures in Algeria’s “Hirak” movement, which successfully brought an end to the political career of long-ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019. The movement continued its weekly street protests in an effort to affect wider change in the country’s system of governance, although the rallies petered out with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. “This conviction is unjust; there is no evidence. We are going to appeal,” Bouraoui’s lawyer, Mustapha Bouchachi, told the AFP news agency. “These kinds of lawsuits, which have been going on for months, won’t calm the political situation.”