Algerian sentenced for distributing leaflets on unemployment

• Tweet

LONDON, May 8 (UPI) -- Algeria's new law regulating associations appears to be a means of restricting activities by civil society, a London-based human rights group charges.

Amnesty International said the measure was used this week to convict an activist who was distributing leaflets about unemployment in the country.

Abdelkrader Kherba, a member of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights and the National Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Unemployed, was sentenced to a two-month suspended prison term and fined $250 for distributing the leaflets in June 2011.

He was convicted of violating a law that exposes active members of non-registered associations to prison terms and hefty fines.

The case is an example of how Algerian authorities are misusing the law and the judicial system to intimidate advocates of social and economic rights, said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Protests over poverty, unemployment and corruption have increased in Algeria during the past two years.