Another one for the List.
Algeria's highest court on Tuesday upheld convictions for three men
caught smoking cigarettes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but
reduced their prison terms, a defense lawyer and a rights group said.
The Algiers appeals court, the North African country's top jurisdiction, cut the sentences from three years to two months for "offending religion," the group and the lawyer said.
The men — all construction workers in an upscale Algiers neighborhood — were caught by police smoking cigarettes on a street Sept. 21, and have been detained since. The lawyer said they would likely be released this week.
No law in Algeria explicitly bars people from eating, drinking, smoking or otherwise breaking the daytime fast during Islam's holy month, which this year fell in September. Justice Ministry officials declined to comment on the case.
But Algerian secularists worry authorities are placating Islamists by increasingly enforcing religious rules. Read on..
