Algeria: President Tebboune seeks death penalty for arsonists after deadly wildfires

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered the justice ministry to amend the country’s Penal Code to introduce the death penalty for arsonists, following a wave of forest fires that have killed at least 12 people in the northeast of the country.

Chairing a meeting at the presidency with senior military and civilian officials, Tebboune gave the Justice Minister until September 15 to draft the changes, which would allow for capital punishment, with immediate execution once appeals are exhausted for anyone convicted of deliberately starting a fire in forested areas.

Capital punishment remains in Algeria’s penal code for several offences, but no execution has been carried out since 1993, with death sentences effectively commuted under a decades-long moratorium.

Under current law, deliberately igniting forest fires carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, or life imprisonment in certain cases.

More than 100 wildfires have swept through Algeria’s northeast in recent days, with the worst destruction concentrated in Jijel, Béjaïa and Tizi Ouzou provinces, injuring dozens and displacing thousands.

Interior Minister Saïd Sayoud confirmed five deaths in Jijel, four in Béjaïa and three in Tizi Ouzou, while 54 people remained hospitalised with burns, six in critical condition.

Tebboune has cast doubt on the fires’ natural origins, questioning why blazes broke out at night when winds were calm, and authorities say they have already arrested several people suspected of arson.

The president declared three days of national mourning and cancelled cultural and sporting events as the country buried victims, including a large collective funeral in Jijel.

Tebboune has also pledged state compensation for those who lost homes, furniture, livestock and property, with the Finance Ministry working to calculate payouts before the September 15 deadline, alongside alternative housing and new building standards for homes in forested areas. “Whoever thinks that he is affecting the country is mistaken,” he said, vowing that “society and justice will take their due from him.”

The fires come amid an intense heatwave across northern Africa that has also affected Tunisia, and follow a pattern of increasingly severe wildfire seasons in Algeria, including blazes in July 2023 near Béjaïa that killed more than 30 people and, in 2021, a wave of fires that killed 69, including dozens of soldiers.