Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, who has been leading Christian congregations in Algeria for over 30 years, appealed his conviction for illegal worshipping in his church on 26th March 2024, the date of his 36th wedding anniversary.    

Pastor Youssef, who was born into a Muslim home but converted as a student to Christianity, was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars on 2 July 2023 for his involvement as the leader of his church, although authorities could provide no evidence of a crime. In November 2023, his prison sentence was reduced from 2 years to 1 year. Upholding his conviction in May 2024, the court added an additional 6 months of suspended prison time to his sentence of 1 year imprisonment and fines of 100,000 Algerian dinars.    

Pastor Youssef is one of the leading figures in the Èglise Protestante d’Algérie (EPA), the Evangelical Protestant group whose 43 churches have been forcibly closed by the Authorities since 2019, leaving only one with its churches open today. Over the past five years, security police in Algeria, with orders from the Ministry of Interior, systematically alleged that the denominations’ church buildings were in violation of various “health and safety” codes. These alleged building code violations, they claimed, justified putting locks over the doors and declaring worship inside the buildings to be illegal. In one case, they physically beat a Pastor in front of his young child because he was peacefully protesting the closure of his church.    

Pastor Youssef has faced baseless criminal prosecutions for his peaceful Christian activities since 2008. He is only the latest person out of 50 Christians to have been convicted by the Courts over the past few years, under the vague offenses of “shaking the faith” of Muslims, illegal worship, or embezzling of tithing donations. The convictions are thought to be a reaction to the large numbers of local Christian converts in the country. “In the 1970s, the government gave out licenses to churches which were largely full of expats. Today, the government is concerned that our churches are almost entirely filled with large numbers of Algerian converts,” said Pastor Youssef.  

On 27 March 2024, a different Pastor and four Elders from the church also appealed their three-year prison sentences and fines of 200,000 Algerian dinars. ADF International continues to advocate for Pastor Youssef’s full acquittal.  

Kelsey Zorzi, Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom and lead lawyer on Pastor Youssef’s case for ADF International, stated:  

“Despite their small numbers, Algeria has systematically been working to prevent the Evangelical community from being able to simply worship together. Pastor Youssef’s case is one of roughly 50 spurious cases against Christians in the past few years. His advocacy throughout the years on behalf of the entire evangelical church in Algeria, even in the face of potential imprisonment, is an inspiration.”  

 “We stand with the persecuted Christians around the world, and especially those who are under such dire threat as the Evangelical community in Algeria. The United States and the international community must take a strong stand against the unlawful church closures and unjustified arrests and imprisonments of pastors.”