Amnesty International has urged the Algerian Government to abandon plans to expand the use of the death penalty and resume executions following deadly wildfires in the country.
Algeria struggled to contain fires that swept through its northeastern regions last month, killing 12 people according to the official tally, although witnesses reported a higher number of deaths.
The North African country has not carried out an execution since 1993 but has continued to hand down death sentences in some cases, including terrorism-related offences, without carrying them out.
Last month, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune directed the Justice Minister to amend the penal code to allow the death penalty for people responsible for starting wildfires following the deadly blazes.
READ ALSO : Wildfires Kill 12, Injure Dozens in Algeria
“Algeria’s authorities must immediately abandon any plans to expand the scope of the death penalty or resume executions after more than three decades without carrying one out,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
The organisation also called on Algeria to impose an official moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolishing the death penalty completely.
Tebboune said people sentenced to death should be executed after exhausting their right to appeal.
The Government began considering draft amendments to the penal code this month, with Tebboune saying child abductors and abusers would also be covered by the proposed expansion of the death penalty.
Forest fires occur regularly in northern Algeria during the summer, while climate change has contributed to more frequent droughts and intense heat, increasing the impact of the blazes.
Tebboune, however, alleged that there was “something criminal” about the recent fires.
Amnesty International also raised concerns about the reported death toll, saying “credible sources have since reported significantly higher casualties” than the official figure, “including over 70 deaths in a single municipality.”
More than 30 people were killed in July 2023 when wildfires destroyed thousands of hectares of forests and farmland, as well as hundreds of homes, in Algeria.
In 2023, Algeria handed death sentences to more than 50 people, some in absentia, over the lynching of a 38-year-old man who had been falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires two years earlier.
Africanews
