The Algerian Parliament is considering expanding the scope of the death penalty to include arson

Listen to the article. The audio text is automated, generated by an automated system

Representatives of the Algerian National People's Assembly will vote today, Thursday, on a draft amendment to the Penal Code to expand the scope of the death penalty to include perpetrators of crimes of setting fires in forests, a measure defended by the Algerian president after deadly fires that the country witnessed last summer.

The text of the amendment expands the scope of crimes punishable by death to also include the kidnapping of children.

According to the clarifications presented by Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa before representatives on Monday, the amendment to the Penal Code concerns two articles, with “raising the penalty for setting fires in fields and forests from 20 years to death,” as well as the “felony of child kidnapping,” in which the penalty was moved from life imprisonment to death.

With regard to child kidnapping, the draft includes amendments to Article 291, proposing the death penalty in specific cases of kidnapping, torturing, sexually assaulting or otherwise abusing a child, in accordance with the conditions specified by the text.

The minister recalled that the death penalty has been stipulated in the Penal Code since 1966 for setting fires that lead to death and kidnapping children “if it is accompanied by violence or a demand for ransom or leads to the death of the child,” according to the current Penal Code.

The Algerian judiciary has issued death sentences for cases related to terrorism and premeditated murder, without carrying out the sentence since 1993.

But in late August, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the Minister of Justice to amend the Penal Code to impose the death penalty on people who start forest fires, and for the sentence to be executed upon them as soon as they exhaust their right to appeal “so that society takes what is due from them.”

The decision came after Algeria faced a wave of deadly fires that swept the northeast of the country, claiming the lives of 12 people, according to an official toll, while witnesses spoke of dozens of deaths.

Amnesty International called on Algeria to "immediately abandon any plans to expand the scope of the death penalty or resume executions more than three decades after they stopped."

It also called for "the adoption of an official moratorium on the implementation of death sentences as a first step towards the complete abolition of the penalty."

The Minister of Justice stressed that Algerian law provides “greater guarantees” when it comes to felonies, such as “the presence of a lawyer at all stages of the investigation and on the day of trial. Also, all decisions are subject to appeal.”

He added that "the death penalty is only carried out after the request for pardon is rejected" from the President of the Republic.

He attributed the tightening of penalties to the fact that “setting fires has reached the form of organized crime.” Investigations also showed “the cooperation of criminals with foreign parties, amounting to treason and violating the sanctity of the national territory,” according to the minister.

Northern Algeria usually witnesses forest fires in the summer, but climate change exacerbates their effects by causing frequent droughts and extreme heat.

More than 30 people died in July 2023 when fires swept through thousands of hectares of forests and agricultural land, as well as hundreds of homes, in and around the Bejaia region.

In 2023, Algeria issued death sentences to more than 50 people from the Tizi Ouzou region, some of them in absentia, in the wake of the killing of a 38-year-old activist and the mutilation of his body after residents of the region wrongly accused him of starting forest fires.

After the National People's Assembly votes to amend the Penal Code, the text moves to the National Assembly, the second chamber of Parliament, for discussion and voting on it before the President of the Republic signs it and is published in the Official Gazette to begin its implementation.