ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria has jailed three activists on charges including threatening national unity for criticising President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and the judiciary, a group defending detainees said on Wednesday.
A court in the southern town of El Bayadh jailed Larbi Tahar and Boussif Mohamed Boudiaf for 18 months and a court in the capital Algiers sentenced Soheib Debghi for one year, the National Committee for the Release of Detainees said.
The group said the three were jailed mainly over posts on social media criticising Tebboune and the judiciary.
Tebboune was elected last December to succeed long-serving president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who resigned in April 2019 after months of mass protests against a corrupt elite.
Activists accuse the authorities of trying to suppress dissent by jailing critics. The government denies abusing human rights, and Tebboune has promised to increase freedoms in a new constitution to be put to a referendum later this year.
(Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; Editing by Peter Graff)
