In 2010, an Algerian court convicted 18 people of flag desecration and punished them by up to 6 years of imprisonment and $10,000 in fines after protests about jobs and housing. According to article 160 bis of the Algerian penal code, the intentional and public shredding, distortion, or desecration of the national flag is punishable by 5 to 10 years of imprisonment. In countries where it is not, the act may still be prosecuted as disorderly conduct, arson, or if conducted on someone else's property as theft or vandalism.īy jurisdiction Algeria It may also be a protest at the very laws prohibiting the act of desecrating a flag.īurning or defacing a flag is a crime in some countries.
It may be a protest against nationalism or a deliberate and symbolic insult to the people of the country represented by the flag.
It may be a protest against a country's foreign policy, including one's own, or the nature of the government in power there.
įlag desecration may be undertaken for a variety of reasons. Actions that may be treated as desecration of a flag include burning it ( flag burning), urinating, defecating or ejaculating on it, defacing it with slogans, stepping upon it, damaging it with stones bullets or any other missile, cutting or ripping it, improperly flying it, verbally insulting it, dragging it on the ground, or eating it, among other things.