The Algerian Parliament has given the green light this Thursday to a reform of the Penal Code that contemplates the death penalty for those considered guilty of deliberately causing fires, following a wave of fires this summer that has resulted in dozens of fatalities and numerous injuries.
The legislative initiative, supported by the majority of the deputies, contemplates "the imposition of the death penalty on the authors of crimes of intentional arson in forests and fields and of intentional destruction of public and private property, committed for the benefit of foreign parties, within the framework of treason, collaboration with the enemy, or organized crime."
In addition, the parliamentarians have incorporated the kidnapping of minors —when accompanied by torture, sexual assaults, or mutilations— into the list of crimes punishable by the death penalty, a sanction already provided for in the Algerian Penal Code, although no sentence has been executed since 1993.
As for the human toll of the recent fires in the northeast of the country, Algerian authorities have reported twelve dead and 54 injured during the intense heat wave, while independent media, such as the portal Twala, raise the figure to around a hundred fatalities.