Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders on Friday hit out at a 10-year prison term handed to an Algerian blogger, describing it as ‘shocking’ and ‘unjustified’. Merzoug Touati was sentenced on Thursday after being found guilty of providing “intelligence to agents of a foreign power likely to harm Algeria’s military or diplomatic position or its essential economic interests”, his lawyer Boubakeur Esseddik Hamaili said. Touati was arrested in January 2017 after he called for protests against a new financial law on his Facebook page and posted a video interview with an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman. “It is utterly shocking that the Algerian authorities have imposed such a heavy sentence on someone solely for expressing his peaceful opinion online,” said Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa regional director at Amnesty International. “Merzoug Touati’s arrest, trial and sentence is further proof that freedom of expression remains under threat in Algeria, where the authorities continue to use a range of repressive laws to quell dissent,” Morayef added. Published in Daily Times, May 27th 2018.