Full Breakdown
Algeria Expands Death Penalty to Arson and Child Kidnapping
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Legislative Action and Scope of the Amendments
Algeria’s lower house, the People’s National Assembly, voted to amend the Penal Code, adding capital punishment for intentional arson of forests or agricultural fields and for child kidnapping that involves torture, sexual assault or mutilation. The amendments also extend the death penalty to sabotage benefiting foreign parties, acts deemed treasonous, and offenses intended to undermine public security, national unity, or economic and environmental stability. The bill now proceeds to the Council of the Nation for review before presidential ratification.
Official Justifications
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who called for the change after a wave of wildfires, instructed the justice ministry to draft the amendments. He framed the tougher penalties as necessary to protect public order and national security.
Human Rights and Opposition Concerns
Human-rights organisations, including Amnesty International, denounced the legislation as a “deeply retrograde response,” urging the government to focus on prevention, emergency response and restitution rather than capital punishment. A coalition of rights groups warned that the death penalty has never deterred arsonists and suggested the law could be used to target political opposition, citing past detentions of members of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK) during the 2021 wildfires.
Casualties and Context of the Wildfires
The recent wildfires in Algeria’s northeast, intensified by an intense heatwave, officially claimed 12 lives, though independent monitoring on the Twala platform, compiled by journalist Nozha Khelalef, puts the death toll at around 200. Algeria regularly experiences summer forest fires, but climate change has heightened their severity, prompting the government’s push for harsher penalties.