Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-001098/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Mathilde Androuët (PfE)
Slimane Bouhafs, a Berber who has converted to Christianity and is an activist for freedom of expression, democracy and minority rights, was granted refugee status by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2020[1]. He was imprisoned several times by the regime between 2010 and 2020, including on false accusations of ‘terrorism’. While he was a refugee in Tunisia, he was abducted and returned to Algeria in 2021, where he suffered physical abuse. He was released together with another activist, Kamira Nait Sid, in 2024, after three years in prison[2], but is now deprived of all his rights and identity papers. His life is now in danger[3].
Nevertheless, the Commission supports the Algerian state through technical, financial and humanitarian cooperation[4], while the former Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has repeatedly recalled the EU’s commitment to freedom of religion or belief[5].
- 1.Has the Commission looked into the Slimane Bouhafs case?
- 2.What action does it intend to take in practice and what means does it have at its disposal to pressure the Algerian regime to comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it has ratified?
Submitted: 14.3.2025
- [1] ‘Algeria: Activist sentenced following refoulement: Slimane Bouhafs’, Amnesty International, 29 August 2023, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde28/7149/2023/en/.
- [2] ‘Human rights defenders Kamira Nait Sid and Slimane Bouhafs released from prison’, Front Line Defenders, 3 September 2024.
- [3] https://www.facebook.com/Tagduda.info/videos/appel-de-d%C3%A9tresse-de-slimane-bouhafs/218730642069359/.
- [4] ‘The European Union and Algeria’, Delegation of the European Union to Algeria, 5 August 2021, https://www.eeas.europa.eu/algeria/european-union-and-algeria_en?s=82.
- [5] ‘Standing up for Freedom of Religion or Belief’, European External Action Service, 21 August 2020, https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/standing-freedom-religion-or-belief_en.