Human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Algerian authorities must immediately release and drop the charges against 44 people for attending a “gay wedding”. According to reports, on July 24 the police raided a private residence and arrested the 44 people, including nine women and 35 men, most of them university students. The arrests took place in el-Kharoub, a district in Constantine Province, north-eastern Algeria, after the neighbours complained. Human Rights Watch reported that an Algerian lawyer involved in the case told the rights group that the court used police reports describing the decorations, flowers and sweets indicative of a wedding celebration, and the men’s supposedly gay appearance, as evidence of guilt.