Please pray for Siagh Krimo, an Algerian Christian who is scheduled to appear in court on September 29 to see if his five year prison sentence for blasphemy will be upheld. Here he is pictured with his wife and nine-month-old child.
Arrested on April 14, 2011 and held for three days for giving a CD about Christianity to his neighbor, Krimo was later summoned to the Criminal Court in the Djamel district of Oran on May 4 and charged with blasphemy. The court tried Krimo based solely on the neighbor’s accusation that Krimo attempted to convert him to Christianity even though the neighbor himself failed to appear at the hearing. The prosecutor, losing his lone witness and the bulk of his evidence, reportedly asked the judge to have Krimo’s sentence reduced to two years imprisonment. However, to the surprise of many, the judge sentenced Krimo beyond the prosecutor’s recommendation, giving him a five year prison sentence, the maximum punishment one can receive for blasphemy.
Krimo’s conviction was in accordance with Article 144 bis 2 of Algeria’s Penal Code which criminalizes acts that “insult the prophet and any of the messengers of God, or denigrate the creed and precepts of Islam, whether by writing, drawing, declaration, or any other means.”
Algerians were shocked that the blasphemy law was applied. “We did not expect this verdict at all,” Krimo’s defense lawyer Mohamed Ben Belkacem told Compass Direct News. “It was a heavy sentence. The judge punished the ‘Christian,’ not the ‘accused.’ There was no proof, and despite that, the court granted him no extenuating circumstances.”
“If they start applying the law like that, it means there is no respect for Christianity and pretty soon all the Christians of Algeria will find themselves in prison,” said Mustapha Krim, the president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA).