Algerian justice on Monday sentenced for incitement to hatred the author of a viral video calling to “
wipe off the map
” Kabylia, a rebellious region east of Algiers, said the Algerian League for Human Rights. man (LADDH), at the origin of the complaint against him.
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The Annaba court sentenced this man, known by the pseudonym Rayfa on social networks, to eight months in prison and a 100,000 dinar fine (622 euros), LADDH said in a statement.
He wanted to "wipe Kabylia off the map"
During his trial, the prosecution requested at the end of August five years in prison against him.
In the offending video, widely relayed on social networks, Rayfa called for “wiping
Kabylia off the map
”, after the lynching to death on August 11 of a man, Djamel Bensmail, wrongly accused of pyromania in this region, then ravaged by forest fires, according to the press release.
Read alsoFires in Algeria: 61 suspects arrested for the lynching of an innocent
More than 80 suspects have been jailed for the lynching of 38-year-old Bensmail from another region.
He had volunteered in the village of Larbaa Nath Irathen, near Tizi Ouzou, to help put out the fires that killed at least 60 people in less than a week.
After hearing that he was suspected of having set the forest on fire, he surrendered to the police.
Images relayed by social networks had shown the crowd surrounding the police van and extricating the man from the vehicle after hitting him.
Bensmail was then beaten and then immolated while young people took selfies in front of the corpse.
A platform for racists and discord
The words of the author of the video "
are of such gravity that the LAADH had to intervene to file a complaint with the prosecutor
" of the court of Annaba, specified
the press
release.
"
Social networks have been transformed for some time into a real platform for regionalists, racists and spokespersons of fitna (discord)
", lamented the LAADH.
Algeria approved in 2020 a law criminalizing discrimination and hate speech which has proliferated over the past two years, especially on social networks.