Algeria faces calls to drop death penalty plans after wildfires

Amnesty International has urged Algerian authorities to halt efforts to widen capital punishment and to stop any move toward resuming executions, after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for arson linked to recent wildfires to be made a capital crime. The rights group released its appeal in a statement on Tuesday, warning that the proposed legal changes risk being used to stifle political opponents.

The push to expand the death penalty followed a wave of destructive fires last month that killed at least 12 people, wounded 54 and destroyed whole villages across the Kabylie region and other parts of northeastern Algeria. Tebboune instructed Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa to amend the penal code to add arson and also to cover child abductors and abusers; he said anyone sentenced to death would have the right to appeal before execution.

Amnesty cautioned that authorities appear to be equating wildfire incidents with subversion and terrorism. The group noted that between July 26 and September 10, security forces detained 20 people for investigations into arson and subversion. It also recalled that after 2021 wildfires that killed 90 people, Algerian authorities prosecuted large numbers of suspects on terrorism-related charges and blamed the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), which the government designates as a terrorist organisation.

The rights organisation urged the Algerian government to focus on addressing the causes of increasingly severe fires, including climate-related factors, rather than relying on criminal prosecutions. Amnesty also highlighted that Algeria has not carried out an execution in more than three decades as it warned against reviving capital punishment for offences tied to the blazes.