FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF The authorities prosecuted peaceful critics and forced the closure of media outlets. In March, a court in Tlemcen convicted and fined Zoulikha Belarbi, a member of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), for defamation and for “offending” the President and a public body. The charges related to her publishing a satirical collage on Facebook depicting President Bouteflika and senior officials. A six-month prison term was added to her sentence on appeal in December. In June, the authorities arrested the director and the producer of the private Khabar Broadcasting Corporation and a Ministry of Communication official in connection with two popular satirical current affairs programmes. The three were detained for several weeks before a court sentenced them to suspended prison terms of between six months and one year for licensing irregularities. Gendarmes sealed the recording studios in July, forcing both shows off the air.3 In July, a court sentenced freelance journalist Mohamed Tamalt to two years’ imprisonment after convicting him of “offending” the President and public institutions in comments he published on Facebook and in his blog about corruption and nepotism among leading officials. An appeal court confirmed his sentence in August, following a hearing at which he accused prison guards of beating him. He began a protest hunger strike at the time of his arrest in June, became comatose in August, and died in hospital in December. The authorities failed to adequately investigate his alleged beating in detention, his treatment in prison and his death.4 In November, a court in El Bayadh sentenced Hassan Bouras, a journalist and human rights activist, to one year in prison on charges of complicity in offending public officials and a public body after a private television station broadcast film of him interviewing three people alleging police and judicial corruption.5 From June onwards, the authorities targeted members of the Ahmadi Muslim community, arresting more than 50 in Blida and Skikda provinces and other parts of the country on account of their faith, according to media reports and civil society groups. Soon after the June arrests in Blida, the Minister of Religious Affairs publicly accused Ahmadis of “extremism” and of serving foreign interests. In November, a court in Skikda sentenced 20 Ahmadis to fines and prison terms ranging from one month to one year; at the end of the year they remained at liberty pending appeal. In August, a court sentenced Christian convert Slimane Bouhafs from Setif to five years in prison for “denigrating” Islam and “insulting” the Prophet Muhammad in comments he posted on Facebook. An appeal court reduced the sentence to three years’ imprisonment.6 64 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS The authorities harassed and prosecuted human rights defenders. In March, a court in Ghardaia charged lawyer Noureddine Ahmine with “insulting a public institution” and falsely reporting an offence, in relation to a complaint of torture that he had filed, apparently on behalf of a client, in 2014. Noureddine Ahmine had defended many protesters and journalists facing charges arising from their peaceful exercise of their human rights. In June, an investigative judge in Ghardaia issued an arrest warrant against lawyer Salah Dabouz, a member of LADDH, in relation to comments he made about unrest in Ghardaia and for allegedly taking a computer and camera into a prison. JUSTICE SYSTEM Dozens of people arrested in connection with communal violence in 2015 in the Mzab region remained in pre-trial detention throughout 2016 as the authorities investigated them on charges of terrorism and inciting hatred. They included political Amnesty International Report 2016/17