Algerian refugee violently abducted in Tunisia and illegally rendered to Algeria
Name(s):
Slimane Bouhafs
Status:
Under travel ban
Year of birth:
1967
Nationality:
Algerian
Date of arrest:
Slimane Bouhafs is an Algerian activist who has been repeatedly targeted by the Algerian authorities for is peaceful social media activism. After fleeing Algeria in 2018 and being granted refugee status by the UNHCR in Tunisia, he was violently abducted in 2021 and forcibly transferred back to Algeria, where he was arbitrarily prosecuted, detained and subjected to ill-treatment. Bouhafs was released in 2024 after completing his three-year sentence. No investigation was conducted by Tunisian or Algerian authorities into his unlawful abduction.
Slimane Bouhafs is an Algerian Christian activist and member of the Amazigh ethnic minority. He became known for his statements on social media, advocating against the discrimination affecting Amazigh and Christian minorities in Algeria.
As a result of his peaceful Facebook posts, he was sentenced by the Court of Appeal of Sétif in September 2016 to three years in prison for “offending the prophet of Islam" under Article 144 bis 2 of the Algerian Penal Code. During his detention, Bouhafs was placed in poor conditions, denied adequate medical care and subjected to harassment and death threats from fellow inmates. After serving nearly two years, he was released in March 2018 following a presidential pardon.
Fearing further persecution, he went into exile in Tunisia in September 2018. Subsequently, in September 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) granted him refugee status. Worried that he remained at risk due to Tunisia’s close proximity to Algeria, he began a third-country relocation process with the UNHCR in July 2021. Bouhafs was the target of numerous intimidation attempts in Tunisia, including on social media, through phone calls, mostly by Algerian numbers, and by being followed. Despite these pressures, he continues his peaceful advocacy online.
On August 25, 2021, Bouhafs was violently abducted in his apartment in Tunis by four armed individuals. He was handcuffed, hooded, sedated and forcibly transported to Algeria. During the abduction, he suffered severe physical and psychological abuse, and his family was left without any information concerning his whereabouts.
On August 26, 2021, he was transferred to a military compound in Algiers. On September 1, 2021, he was brought before a public prosecutor and an investigating judge at the Sidi Mhamed court and placed in pre-trial detention on 10 charges, including participation in a terrorist and subversive organisation, glorification of terrorist acts, conspiracy to destroy or change the regime, undermining national unity, promoting false information, discrimination and hate speech, receiving funds from abroad, and insulting the Prophet of Islam.
Following his abduction in Tunisia, his family members filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor at the Tunis Court of First Instance, requesting an open investigation into his abduction and forced transfer.
In 2021 and 2022, numerous Tunisian and international human rights organisations called on Tunisian authorities to investigate the abduction. The UNHCR in Tunis has also confirmed that they had raised the case but received no response. On September 20, 2021, several UN human rights experts sent a communication to both the Tunisian and Algerian authorities, expressing serious concern that the facts, if confirmed, would constitute violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances. The Tunisian authorities failed to respond, while the Algerian authorities denied any abduction, claiming that Bouhafs was arrested in Tébessa, Algeria, on August 27, 2021.
On December 16, 2022, Bouhafs was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars, on charges of "undermining national unity" (Article 79 of the Penal Code), "discrimination and hate speech" (Article 31 of Law 20-05) and "promoting false information" (Article 196 bis of the Penal Code). He was acquitted of the terrorism charges. The prosecution relied exclusively on his social media posts that criticised the Algerian authorities for their treatment of Christian and Amazigh minorities, and the mismanagement of the forest fires in Kabylie in July-August 2021, as well as on his participation in community events and alleged support for the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK). On July 4, 2023, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction.
During his imprisonment, Bouhafs was detained in extremely poor conditions, denied adequate medical treatment and harassed by fellow prisoners for his political and religious affiliations.
Bouhafs was released from prison on September 1, 2024, but continues to live under the threat of re-arrest. To this date, no effective investigation has been opened in Tunisia concerning Bouhafs’ violent abduction, despite the repeated calls to do so.
On February 27, 2026, Bouhafs was due to leave Algeria with the help of a human rights organisation, but border police questioned him for a long period of time, making him miss his flight. When he returned to the airport on March 6, 2026, to take a new flight, border police informed him that he was, in fact, subject to a travel ban and could not leave the country despite having received no official document or notification as required under Algerian law.
On March 30, 2026, MENA Rights Group submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee concerning the Tunisian authorities’ failure to investigate Bouhafs’s arbitrary abduction and forced transfer to Algeria.
| Name(s): |
Slimane Bouhafs
|
| Status: |
Under travel ban
|
| Year of birth: |
1967
|
| Nationality: |
Algerian
|
| Date of arrest: |
|
Slimane Bouhafs is an Algerian Christian activist and member of the Amazigh ethnic minority. He became known for his statements on social media, advocating against the discrimination affecting Amazigh and Christian minorities in Algeria.
As a result of his peaceful Facebook posts, he was sentenced by the Court of Appeal of Sétif in September 2016 to three years in prison for “offending the prophet of Islam" under Article 144 bis 2 of the Algerian Penal Code. During his detention, Bouhafs was placed in poor conditions, denied adequate medical care and subjected to harassment and death threats from fellow inmates. After serving nearly two years, he was released in March 2018 following a presidential pardon.
Fearing further persecution, he went into exile in Tunisia in September 2018. Subsequently, in September 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) granted him refugee status. Worried that he remained at risk due to Tunisia’s close proximity to Algeria, he began a third-country relocation process with the UNHCR in July 2021. Bouhafs was the target of numerous intimidation attempts in Tunisia, including on social media, through phone calls, mostly by Algerian numbers, and by being followed. Despite these pressures, he continues his peaceful advocacy online.
On August 25, 2021, Bouhafs was violently abducted in his apartment in Tunis by four armed individuals. He was handcuffed, hooded, sedated and forcibly transported to Algeria. During the abduction, he suffered severe physical and psychological abuse, and his family was left without any information concerning his whereabouts.
On August 26, 2021, he was transferred to a military compound in Algiers. On September 1, 2021, he was brought before a public prosecutor and an investigating judge at the Sidi Mhamed court and placed in pre-trial detention on 10 charges, including participation in a terrorist and subversive organisation, glorification of terrorist acts, conspiracy to destroy or change the regime, undermining national unity, promoting false information, discrimination and hate speech, receiving funds from abroad, and insulting the Prophet of Islam.
Following his abduction in Tunisia, his family members filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor at the Tunis Court of First Instance, requesting an open investigation into his abduction and forced transfer.
In 2021 and 2022, numerous Tunisian and international human rights organisations called on Tunisian authorities to investigate the abduction. The UNHCR in Tunis has also confirmed that they had raised the case but received no response. On September 20, 2021, several UN human rights experts sent a communication to both the Tunisian and Algerian authorities, expressing serious concern that the facts, if confirmed, would constitute violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances. The Tunisian authorities failed to respond, while the Algerian authorities denied any abduction, claiming that Bouhafs was arrested in Tébessa, Algeria, on August 27, 2021.
On December 16, 2022, Bouhafs was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars, on charges of "undermining national unity" (Article 79 of the Penal Code), "discrimination and hate speech" (Article 31 of Law 20-05) and "promoting false information" (Article 196 bis of the Penal Code). He was acquitted of the terrorism charges. The prosecution relied exclusively on his social media posts that criticised the Algerian authorities for their treatment of Christian and Amazigh minorities, and the mismanagement of the forest fires in Kabylie in July-August 2021, as well as on his participation in community events and alleged support for the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK). On July 4, 2023, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction.
During his imprisonment, Bouhafs was detained in extremely poor conditions, denied adequate medical treatment and harassed by fellow prisoners for his political and religious affiliations.
Bouhafs was released from prison on September 1, 2024, but continues to live under the threat of re-arrest. To this date, no effective investigation has been opened in Tunisia concerning Bouhafs’ violent abduction, despite the repeated calls to do so.
On February 27, 2026, Bouhafs was due to leave Algeria with the help of a human rights organisation, but border police questioned him for a long period of time, making him miss his flight. When he returned to the airport on March 6, 2026, to take a new flight, border police informed him that he was, in fact, subject to a travel ban and could not leave the country despite having received no official document or notification as required under Algerian law.
On March 30, 2026, MENA Rights Group submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee concerning the Tunisian authorities’ failure to investigate Bouhafs’s arbitrary abduction and forced transfer to Algeria.
