Algeria Rights Activist Given Suspended Jail Term

An Algerian court on Monday handed Yaseen Zaid, a human rights activist, a suspended six-month prison sentence and fined him $130 for verbally assaulting policemen, his lawyers said.

"The judge gave Yaseen Zaid a suspended six-month prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 Algerian dinars ($130, 100 euros)," Amine Sidhoum, a member of his legal team, told Agence France Presse.

Zaid, a member of Algeria's League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) who is on trial for inciting unrest in a separate case, was arrested last week near Ouargla, in southern Algeria, and remanded in custody.

The prosecution at the court in Ouargla, 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Algiers, had asked that he serve a fixed six-month prison sentence.

"I am not happy with this (suspended) sentence, which amounts to a threat against (Zaid)," said Salah Debouz, a lawyer who also belongs to the LADDH rights group.

"They want to make him stop his activities from fear of returning to prison to serve a fixed term," he told AFP, adding that the case against him was "empty."

His lawyers said they would appeal Monday's ruling.

Zaid had already been charged, along with three other rights activist, for inciting unrest, after they were arrested in April during a protest outside a court in Algiers in support of fellow activist Abdelkader Kherba.

U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay, during a visit to Algeria last month, said she was "very concerned" about problems facing Algerian NGOs, highlighting their role in helping to expose abuses.