Source: Middle East Concern, March 5, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pastor Ourahmane is a senior pastor overseeing a number of churches and Bible schools in several areas of [Algeria], in addition to his responsibility as vice president of an association of more than 45 Protestant churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March 2023, he was investigated by the authorities, after a small number of Christian families spent three days during a school holiday in a church compound under his supervision. The compound has a small church, which had been sealed in 2019 by an order from the governor of the province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pastor Ourahmane was not informed of the court hearing or the verdict (two years in prison and a fine) until mid-September 2023. He was charged with holding an unauthorized religious assembly (worship) and holding worship in a building not permitted for worship. The charges are based on two articles of the Ordinance to Regulate non-Muslim Worship, enacted in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 19, there was hearing appealing the verdict [but] the sentence was upheld. Pastor Ourahmane has filed a further appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecuting the vice president of the EPA is an escalation of a campaign, started in 2017, to close Protestant churches and harass leaders. Only a handful of churches are still open. Several Christians, especially church leaders, have faced court cases on different charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See also Africa\u2019s Largest Mosque Inaugurated in Algeria After Years of Delays<\/a> (The Guardian). It features the world\u2019s tallest minaret and its prayer room can accommodate 120,000 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Middle East Concern, March 5, 2024 Pastor Ourahmane is a senior pastor overseeing a number of churches and Bible schools in several areas of [Algeria], in addition to his responsibility as vice president of an association of more than 45 Protestant churches. In March 2023, he was investigated by the authorities, after a small … Continue reading Algeria: Ministry Leader Charged for Holding an Unauthorized Assembly<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12841,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766\/revisions\/12841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}