Rights groups slam Algeria blogger's 'shocking' prison term

International rights groups slammed a 10-year prison term handed to an Algerian blogger on Friday, describing it as "shocking" and “unjustified" 

Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders condemned the sentence handed to Merzoug Touati on Thursday, who was found guilty of providing "intelligence to agents of a foreign power likely to harm Algeria's military or diplomatic position or its essential economic interests", his lawyer Boubakeur Esseddik Hamaili said. 

"It is utterly shocking that the Algerian authorities have imposed such a heavy sentence on someone solely for expressing his peaceful opinion online," said Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa regional director at Amnesty International.

"Merzoug Touati's arrest, trial and sentence is further proof that freedom of expression remains under threat in Algeria, where the authorities continue to use a range of repressive laws to quell dissent," Morayef added.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the sentence as "disproportionate and unjustified." 

"A social network post should not result in such a harsh punishment as imprisonment," said Souhaieb Khayati, head of the organisation's North Africa branch. 

Touati has been held since January 2017 in Bejaia, on the coast in northeast Algeria, after having called for protests against a new financial law on his Facebook page and posted a video interview with an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman. 

Hamaili told AFP that his client was being charged under an article of the penal code which carries the death sentence for armed incitement against the state.

He would call on the court to throw out the charges, arguing that his client, an unemployed university graduate, had simply campaigned for acts of civil disobedience.

In 2018, Reporters Without Borders ranked Algeria 136 out of 180 in terms of press freedoms.