Algeria opposition figure Ghares sentenced to prison for insulting President Tebboune

An Algerian court has sentenced opposition figure Fethi Ghares to two years in prison over a Facebook post deemed insulting to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, according to his lawyer, Abdelghani Badi.

Ghares, a secular leftist opposition leader, was convicted “for remarks concerning the president,” Badi said. However, the court did not order his immediate detention, and Ghares remains out of custody.

The lawyer also confirmed that the defense team plans to file an appeal against the verdict. Ghares was absent from the hearing, as he did not attend the court session on Tuesday.

Lawyer Fetta Sadat, another member of his defence, wrote on Facebook that Ghares was also ordered to pay a fine of 300,000 dinars ($2,300), adding that prosecutors had sought a three-year sentence and the same fine.

Sadat said Ghares was tried on charges of “insulting a state institution” and “spreading false or malicious information likely to harm public order or security”.

Ghares, 50, had already been convicted in another case in May last year on similar charges and sentenced to one year in prison, though he was not jailed pending appeal to the Supreme Court.

He has previously been arrested in 2021 and was later sentenced to prison on charges including insulting the president.

All charges, including the most recent ones, stemmed from posts he made on Facebook.

A figure from Algeria’s secular leftist opposition, Ghares in 2019 joined the pro-democracy Hirak movement mass protests that swept veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power.

His Democratic and Social Movement party successor of the Algerian Communist Party was banished in February 2023.

(Channels)