ALGERIA: DEATH SENTENCES FOR PRISON GUARD MURDER

a court in Tizi Ouzou Province, 100 km east of Algiers, Algeria, sentenced two men who killed a prison guard in September to death in absentia. Rabie Gurimech and Mourad Sghir were charged with forming an armed terrorist group and kidnapping for ransom. On December 31, 2006, more than 40 terrorists in police uniforms entered a hotel in Tizi Ouzou.
They abducted the hotel’s owner and Morsli Mohamed Said who worked as a prison guard. Three days later, the kidnappers called the father of the hotel’s owner and demanded a ransom. On September 21, a repentant terrorist sent a video tape which showed four armed people cutting the prison guard’s throat and putting the head on his body. The video tape was sent with a letter written by the repentant terrorist in which he said he asked God pardon. “We have wrongfully killed a Muslim.”