On Monday, 17 August 2026, the Criminal Chamber of the Ain Temouchent Court of Appeal issued its ruling in the case of prisoner of conscience Mohamed Said Riahi, sentencing him to one year in prison and a fine, thereby reducing the initial sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment. During the appeal hearing, the prosecution had requested a harsher sentence.
The Ain Temouchent Court had previously sentenced Mohamed Said Riahi, on 6 July 2026, to 18 months in prison and a fine of 200,000 Algerian dinars, in connection with posts he published on Facebook. The prosecution had sought a three-year prison sentence and a fine.
The case dates back to 9 June 2026, when police arrested him at his workplace and placed him in police custody until he was brought before the public prosecutor on 11 June. He was subsequently referred for trial under immediate appearance proceedings and placed in pretrial detention.
This marks the third time Mohamed Said Riahi has been arrested in connection with his activism and exercise of his right to freedom of expression, having previously been imprisoned twice in similar cases. He is also the brother of prisoner of conscience Melik Riahi, who has remained in detention for more than fourteen months without trial.
Mohamed Said Riahi’s arrest came weeks after he published a public appeal in which he denounced what he described as the denial of his brother Melik’s access to a money transfer sent to him in prison several weeks earlier. He described the measure as arbitrary and a means of exerting psychological pressure on him.
With the appeal ruling, Mohamed Said Riahi’s sentence has been reduced from 18 months to one year in prison, while he remains behind bars in a case stemming primarily from posts published on social media.
