Death penalty law for arsonists adopted

Algerian lawmakers have adopted a law imposing the death penalty on convicted forest arsonists, after deadly wildfires ripped through swathes of the country in recent weeks. The Citizen reports that the official death toll from the blazes, which swept through the country’s northeast during the summer, was 12 people, but witnesses have reported the deaths of dozens. Algeria had upheld a moratorium on the death penalty since 1993, but President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in August ordered the Justice Minister to amend the penal code to broaden the list of crimes for which capital punishment is allowed. Lawmakers yesterday also voted to extend capital punishment to child kidnappings involving torture, sexual assault or mutilation. ‘The adoption of the death penalty for these acts is the appropriate legal response to curb these crimes,’ Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa told Parliament after the vote.