Algeria Imposes Death Penalty for Forest Arson, Child Abduction
Both houses of parliament approved the amendments last week, and they have since been published in the Official Gazette, the agency said.
The law applies capital punishment to anyone who deliberately sets fire to forests, wooded areas, cultivated or uncultivated fields, or trees and timber within forests.
It also covers anyone who “deliberately” sets fire to public or private property at the instigation of, or for the benefit of, a foreign state or party. The same applies when the act is part of treason or collusion with an organized criminal group.
The provisions extend to offenses against security and public order, national unity, institutional stability or the national economy, as well as acts that damage the environment, ecological balance, or forest, plant, animal and agricultural resources.
Those who incite, encourage, finance, plan or take part in such acts face the same penalty, as do those who help prepare or facilitate them by any means, including information and communication technologies and social media.
Arson that kills one or more people is likewise punishable by death.
Child kidnapping
The law prescribes death for anyone who abducts a child by any means, or who tortures, sexually assaults or brutally mistreats a child. This is without prejudice to other penalties under existing legislation.
Anyone convicted of offenses covered by the provisions cannot claim mitigating circumstances under the penal code.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the death penalty reactivated for these crimes after widespread fires in late August that caused deaths and property damage, particularly in the country’s eastern provinces.
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