Algeria approves death penalty for arson after deadly wildfires
Story By Staff Reporter
Algeria has passed legislation making forest and farmland arson punishable by death, following a wave of lethal wildfires across the country.
Lawmakers in the national assembly approved the bill on Thursday. It also classes child abduction as a capital crime.
Although the death penalty remains in Algeria’s penal code for certain offences, the country has not carried out an execution since 1993.
Officials put the death toll from the fires at 12, but independent media outlets suspect the real number is considerably higher.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune instructed the justice ministry to amend the criminal code after over 100 fires broke out in the country’s north-east during a severe heatwave across northern Africa.
Under the new rules, anyone found guilty of intentionally starting fires in forests, woodland or fields may be sentenced to death. The punishment has also been extended to abductions of children involving torture, sexual assault or mutilation.
AFP reports that Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa told lawmakers the measure was “the appropriate legal response to curb these crimes.”
He argued that harsher sentences were warranted because arson had become “the level of organised crime,” and said investigations pointed to involvement by “foreign parties.”
The Council of the Nation, the upper house, will examine the law before the president formally signs it into force.
Meanwhile, investigative journalist Nozha Khelalef has been compiling names of suspected victims from family-posted death notices and details released by some local authorities. Her count, published on the independent news site Twala, stands at 200 deaths.
Wildfires are a regular feature of Algerian summers, but climate change has made recent blazes more intense and destructive.
