TIZI OUZOU, Algeria — Without any prior notice or summons from police, a Christian convert from Islam received word Dec. 11 that he had been convicted of pressuring a Muslim to leave his religion, he said.
Mohamed Ibaouene, 36, was convicted in absentia July 4 by a court in Tigzirt and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of $635, according to a copy of the judgment prepared by a court in Tindouf, where he held a position with an international business. “I have never been summoned by the police or any other authority — I have never been investigated by the police,” Ibaouene said.
Ibaouene said that earlier in the year a 27-year-old Islamic extremist from Algiers who worked as a machine operator at the company where he held a management post approached him at his office for the sole purpose of asking him, “Is it true that you are a Christian?”
When Ibaouene replied, “Yes, I am,” the young worker — identified only as Abdelkrim M. — began to try to persuade him to return to Islam, which he called “the religion of all Algerians,” Ibaouene said.
Ibaouene refused to renounce Christ.
Abdelkrim M. then filed a complaint with the police in Tindouf, accusing Ibaouene of pressuring him to renounce Islam.
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