Algeria’s Tebboune Orders Death-Penalty Amendment for Deliberate Forest Fires

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered Algeria’s justice minister to prepare a Penal Code amendment providing for an enforceable death penalty for people convicted of deliberately setting fires. The amendment must be drafted before September 15, presented to the government this week and then sent to the National People’s Assembly. Tebboune issued the instruction at a meeting on measures responding to recent fires in eastern and central provinces, attended by senior civilian and military officials. He said society and justice should obtain their rights from convicted perpetrators. The proposal is not yet law and requires government and parliamentary consideration.