ALGIERS, Algeria — An Algerian court acquitted two Christian men Oct. 5 of eating during Ramadan in spite of a prosecutor’s demand that they be punished for “insulting Islam.” Authorities arrested Salem Fellak and Hocine Hocini on Aug. 12 for eating lunch on a private construction site where they were working during Islam’s month of fasting during daylight hours.
The incident took place in Ain El-Hammam, in the province of Tizi Ouzou about 93 miles east of the Algerian capital. Officers at a nearby police station saw the two men eating and confronted them for not fasting. When police realized the two men were Christians, they accused them of insulting Islam, according to local French-language press reports.
Authorities interrogated them for two hours and “admonished” them, and then a state prosecutor questioned them, telling them that Algeria was a Muslim country with no room for Christians, according to a local news site. On Oct. 5 the judge at the court in Ain El-Hammam dismissed the case since “no article (of law) provided for a legal pursuit” against the two Christians, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.
Share with others: