Article Adopted and translated from tamurt.info

( TKP)–Slimane Bouhafs –a human rights defender, who defends Christians and minorities in Algeria, released in 2024 after 3 years in prison, is again under threat and distress.

Although he served an arbitrary sentence of 3 years on bogus charges, from August 2021 to September 2024, Mr. Slimane Bouhafs is being considered as a second-class citizen because of harassment and intimidation he received from the Algerian military junta that denied his rights as a citizen.

“I became a stateless person, at home in Algeria. I don’t have any identification card. I am deprived of all my rights. The Algerian authorities refuse to issue to me documents proving my identity, so I am stateless. Even my retirement pension was disallowed. I urge all international bodies and all living people who believe in justice to help me. I have no more life. I can’t stand my life anymore, “says Slimane Bouhafs.

Given his vulnerability and exposure, Mr. Bouhafs is a stranded man, prompted by Algeria’s religious intolerance, now, he seeks support and protection to survive.

For your information, Mr. Bouhafs has Christian faith. He was imprisoned several times between 2010 and 2020 for his religious and human rights activities. In 2019, Slimane Bouhafs fled to Tunisia. Then, the UN refugee agency in Tunisia granted him international protection. Bouhafs was waiting for a host country in Europe, but the procedure was delayed and he stayed in Tunisia.

 On August 25th, 2021, an armed group kidnapped him from his home in Tunis and illegally transferred him to Algeria where he was sentenced to 3 years in prison. After serving 3 years in prison, he was released in September 2024.

 “They took me away from home, naked”, Says Slimane Bouhafs.  “I was kidnapped by 4 armed individuals of Algerian nationality, at home in Tunisia. I was in my shower when 4 individuals broke into my house. They tied me up and put a 

are in real danger. He doesn’t know what to do. He launches yet another distress black bag on my head. All naked, they took me out of my house and threw me into a van. After several hours of driving, they took me down into a forest, still naked. They beat me up and one of them even urinated on my face”.

Bouhafs, after showing us the scars inflicted to him by his attackers, stated that he was transferred to Algeria by smugglers. Once in Algeria, he underwent the worst methods of torture. 

The complicity of the Tunisian authorities in the kidnapping of Slimane by the Algerian secret services on August 25, 2022, is obvious and certain. Nevertheless, Tunisia has infringed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which it ratified.

Today, Slimane Bouhafs lives in fear and uncertainty. Algeria’s brutal regime continues its psychological destruction’s machinery against a peaceful and pious man, after he has endured abject mistreatment and torture. 

  https://tamurt.info/slimane-bouhafs-lance-un-appel-de-detresse/

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/urgent-actions/activist-sentenced-following-refoulement

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/09/26/algeria-free-activist-granted-refugee-status-tunisia