Eideard

Two Christians who were on trial in Algeria for breaking Ramadan fasting rules have been cleared of wrongdoing.

Human rights groups said the trial was a violation of the right to religious freedom under the constitution.

Hocine Hocini and Salem Fellak were arrested in August during the month of Ramadan, after they were seen eating lunch on the building site where they worked in Kabylie, northern Algeria…

The two men admitted they had been eating, but said they had done it discreetly, and felt they had done nothing wrong.

The judge at the court in Ain El Hamman threw the case out because “no article [of law] provided for a legal pursuit” against the men, thereby rejecting the prosecutors’ request for three-year prison sentences…

Algeria is a mostly Muslim country; the ministry of religious affairs estimates there are only about 11,000 Christians among a population of 36 million.

Phew! An illustration of the trials and tribulations of a minority in a theocracy – where minority status is determined by religion alone.

Campaigning in the countryside
Daylife/AP Photo used with permission

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s president, has won his third five-year term in a presidential election marred by allegations of fraud and attacks at polling stations.

Bouteflika, 72, who ran against five candidates without much political clout, won the election with more than 90 per cent of the vote.

His nearest rival, Louisa Hannoune, a Trotskyist candidate, only won 4.22 per cent of the votes.

Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, Algeria’s interior minister, said that more than 74 per cent of Algerians cast ballots, including 65 per cent in the capital, Algiers, despite boycotts by opposition parties.

Bouteflika was only able to run for office again because legislators recently abolished term limits, a move that could allow him to serve for life.

Supporters highlight his success in bringing Algeria back to stability after the civil war in the 1990s which killed about 150,000 people.

I always get cranky about the “elected for life” crappola. That whine hasn’t changed since the Republicans used it against FDR during the Great Depression.

There’s an operative word in there. It’s “elected”. You can always be tossed out of office when that portion of democracy is in play. It’s really only the most reactionary who hate to acknowledge someone may have enough popular support to be re-elected time after time.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

A former CIA station chief in Algeria is under investigation by the State and Justice departments after being accused of raping at least two women while he held the post.

Two Algerian women allege that the CIA’s former Algeria station chief raped them at his home. The women told investigators that they think date-rape drugs were used in the assaults, which are said to have occurred at the officer’s official residence.

The allegations were made in the fall, when the unidentified officer was still serving as station chief. In October, soon after the allegations were made, the man returned to the United States for a previously scheduled trip and was ordered not to return to his post, the source said.

A senior U.S. official confirmed that the case is under investigation but refused to comment on the details…

The women, who are Algerian citizens, brought their allegations to a U.S. government official, and federal authorities then launched an investigation.

A search of the station chief’s residence in Algeria was approved by a U.S. District Court judge after a request from the Justice Department. The search found pills believed to be of a type commonly used in date rape, the source said.

In that search, authorities also found about a dozen tapes that are thought to show the officer engaged in sexual acts, the source said, including some in which women are believed to be in a semiconscious state. CNN’s source had not seen the tapes but had been briefed on their content. Some of the tapes include date stamps indicating that the recordings happened when he would have been serving in Cairo, Egypt, before his tenure in Algeria…

So – possibly – this CIA operative has been doing the United States nothing but disservice during his tenure in North Africa. Nothing unusual about a government operative taking on the mantle of being above the law. This case sounds worse than many, though – using his position and power in such a corrupt and venal manner.

We’re watching you

Four Algerian Christians have been given suspended jail terms and fines for worshipping illegally…

The state-appointed Higher Islamic Council said Protestant evangelicals are secretly trying to divide Algerians to colonise the country…

The four men admitted they had converted to Christianity but rejected the charge against them – that they were holding an illegal religious ceremony when they were arrested.

Some reports also suggest the men were accused of attempting to convert other Algerians to Christianity…

One of our more advanced allies in the Great War on Terror.