The deadly blazes last week prompted three days of national mourning and a government pledge to fully compensate victims for material losses
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered the restoration of capital punishment for deliberate arson following wildfires that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens across the country.
Tebboune instructed the government on Sunday to amend the Penal Code before September 15 to impose the death penalty “with immediate execution” for people convicted of deliberately starting fires.
Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb said on Monday that the justice minister had been tasked, in coordination with the secretary-general of the government, with preparing the draft for consideration by the Council of Ministers before its referral to Parliament.
If implemented, the measure would mark a significant departure from Algeria’s de facto moratorium on executions. Courts have continued to impose death sentences, but the North African country has not carried out an execution since 1993.
The move follows devastating fires that broke out on August 26 and swept through several northern provinces. Interior Minister Said Sayoud put the official death toll at 12. He said at least 54 people were injured in the province of Bejaia, six of them critically.
President Tebboune subsequently declared three days of national mourning for the victims. Prime Minister Ghrieb has announced that the state would fully compensate victims for all material losses by September 15, including damaged homes, crops and livestock.
Algeria has repeatedly suffered deadly summer wildfires. At least 90 people, including soldiers deployed in rescue operations, were killed when blazes devastated the Kabylie region in August 2021. Following those fires and related violence, dozens of suspects were handed death sentences.
In a statement on Monday, the General Directorate of Civil Protection said its personnel extinguished 35 vegetation fires nationwide between Sunday and Monday morning, 15 of which affected forests. Last Thursday, the authority said its personnel had extinguished 147 of 193 fires recorded across several provinces.
Investigations have been opened into the origins of the fires, although the authorities have not concluded that all were deliberately started. In July, four suspects were placed in pretrial detention in three separate cases involving alleged deliberate fires on forest land, according to the Algerian Press Service.
