Algeria : Three years in jail for burning the Koran

The criminal court of Annaba (eastern Algeria ) yesterday sentenced a bank manger to three years in jail on charges of burning the holy Koran.

The events go back to the year 2006 where the convict’s son lodged a complaint against his father in which he accused of trying to abuse his mother and both his sisters while he was drunk. The mother in her turn, confirmed the facts saying that her husband was an alcohol addict and vicious.

She went on saying that her husband returned home drunk and spat on his son while this one was praying and acted similarly against her then he pulled the carpet from her to burn it . Afterwards he went to the kitchen where his 13-year-old daughter was and started uttering vicious words in addition to his attempts to abuse her.

The woman has lodged a complaint for the second time against her husband, while this one burnt the Koran she was reading. She brought the burnt book to the police.

As to the daughter, this one declared before the judge that her father forced her to watch porn films in his company. The allegations were confirmed by the second daughter, Ahlam (15).

Trying to give his version of the facts, the convict declared that he was a victim of his wife’s lack of duty in addition to the interference of his family in law in their private life. But this one didn’t deny the burning of the holly book.