Photo via newsimg.bbc.co.uk

Algeria: Priest jailed for celebrating mass at wrong place

A Catholic priest has been sentenced by a court in Oran to a year in prison for having celebrated mass in an unauthorized area, reports CISA News.

Fr Pierre Wallez was near Maghnia town when some Cameroonian youths who study in the area asked him if they could pray together, sources told the missionary news agency MISNA.

A police patrol in the area saw what was happening and arrested the priest in accordance with legislation adopted by the Algerian government in March 2006, which “forbids the practice of non-Islamic faith beyond the appropriate buildings that are authorized for this purpose”.

In Algeria, Islam is the state religion, and freedom of worship is purportedly guaranteed by the constitution. The new law on worship sought above all to control clandestine evangelical proselytising groups.

An Algerian Muslim doctor has also been sentenced to two years, for having used medicines that were not authorized in a medical facility in the migrants’ village in Maghnia.

Fr Wallez and the Muslim doctor will appeal their sentences.

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[02/20/2008]

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