Protesters in Algeria have called for the release of Slimane Bouhafs, an evangelical Christian jailed for three years in September for “insulting” Islam and the prophet Muhammad in his social media posts.
A crowd gathered in the northern city of Tizi Ouzou lobbied for Mr Bouhafs to be allowed access to medical treatment late last month, amid concerns that his health is rapidly deteriorating in prison.
They also called for a change to the law that punishes anyone deemed to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad or “denigrated the dogma or precepts of Islam”.
The organisers, a civil society group, vowed to continue protests in other regions of the country.
Mr Bouhafs was recently moved from a jail in the northern city of Setif to another 120 kilometres east in the city of Constantine.
The civil society group described his transfer as “an arbitrary decision…to take him further away from his family”.
Mr Bouhafs’ daughter Thilleli said in a post on Facebook that her father had lost half his body weight in the two months he had so far spent incarcerated.
“My father’s inflammatory rheumatism, which can only be treated with a specific diet which is impossible to get in prison, is taking a terrible toll on him,” she said.
Last month Mr Bouhafs’ family appealed to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a pardon.
Mr Bouhafs, who converted to Christianity in 1997, has been a well-known social activist in his local area of Kabylie, a Berber region in the predominantly Arab country.
