On Tuesday, 15 September 2026, the Algiers Court of Appeal issued its ruling in the case of Latifa Dib, a former lawyer and president of the National Organization of Algerian Women’s Competencies and Elites, upholding her conviction while reducing her sentence from four years to two years in prison. Dib is currently detained at Koléa Prison.
The appeal ruling comes approximately three months after the judgment issued by the Sidi M’Hamed Court in Algiers on 15 June 2026, which sentenced her to four years in prison and a fine of 200,000 Algerian dinars.
Latifa Dib was prosecuted on the charge of “displaying to the public publications liable to harm the national interest,” under Article 96 of the Penal Code, in connection with content she published on Facebook. At the first-instance trial, the prosecution had requested a sentence of five years in prison and a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars.
The case stems from a series of statements and posts Dib shared on social media. Before criminal proceedings were initiated against her, she published a video in which she spoke about what she described as abuses she experienced during a visit to the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf. She said she had been subjected to insults and mistreatment by officials affiliated with the Polisario Front and considered what happened to her to be the result of incitement directed against her.
She later published a lengthy open letter on Facebook, accompanied by a photograph of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and another of the Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, General Saïd Chengriha. The post contained political views, positions, and criticism and formed the basis of the prosecution that ultimately led to her conviction and imprisonment.
On 2 June 2026, a judge at the Sidi M’Hamed Court ordered Latifa Dib’s pre-trial detention at the Koléa correctional facility, after she was brought before the public prosecutor and prosecuted under fast-track proceedings. Following her trial on 8 June, the first-instance judgment was issued on 15 June, sentencing her to four years in prison. The Algiers Court of Appeal has now upheld the conviction while reducing the sentence to two years in prison.
Despite the reduction of her sentence on appeal, the case remains fundamentally linked to content and expression published in the digital space. The ruling means that Latifa Dib remains deprived of her liberty in a case arising from her expression on social media, amid continuing prosecutions and convictions of critical voices over posts, videos, and statements published online.
