Algeria president calls for death penalty for intentional forest fires

Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has called for the death penalty for anyone who deliberately starts a forest fire after at least 12 people died in wildfires in the country’s northeast.

Tebboune ordered Algeria’s justice minister on Sunday to submit a proposal by September 15 to amend the penal code to allow capital punishment for those convicted of intentionally setting forest fires, state media reported.

Algeria’s penal code already allows the death penalty for several offences, though the country has not carried one out since 1993.

Deliberately starting forest fires currently carries up to 30 years in prison, or life imprisonment in some cases.

Tebboune also ordered provincial governors to hand over all available information about the fires to security authorities, pointing to the possibility that some of the blazes were started deliberately.

“We saw videos and noticed that a number of fires broke out at the same time, at around 1am, which raises many questions,” he said.

His call came after Algeria observed three days of national mourning over the deaths of the 12 people in the provinces of Jijel, Bejaia, and Tizi Ouzou. At least 54 others were injured.

The president on Monday ordered authorities to compensate affected families and set up committees to assess losses and determine compensation for damaged property.

He instructed officials to restore electricity, gas, water and telecommunications in affected areas by Saturday at the latest, and told housing authorities to arrange repairs to damaged homes.

Tebboune said normal life should resume in the affected areas within a week.

At least 46 fires are still burning across the country, and a total of 193 fires have been recorded in the past 24 hours.