Arabic version: العفو الدولية تحث الجزائر على التخلي عن خطط تنفيذ الإعدام

According to Allafrica, Amnesty International has called on Algeria to abandon plans to broaden the death penalty and resume executions after more than three decades without an execution. The group urged authorities to establish an official moratorium as a first step toward abolition.

On 30 August, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune instructed the justice minister to amend the Penal Code by 15 September to “reintroduce” the death penalty for intentionally starting or instigating fires. He said people sentenced to death would be executed after exhausting their appeal rights. The government began examining draft amendments on 6 September, with the president also indicating capital punishment could be introduced for “child abductors and abusers”.

The proposed measures followed deadly wildfires between 26 and 30 August that destroyed villages in Kabylie and other parts of northeastern Algeria. Amnesty said authorities should pursue prevention, credible investigations and accountability for all factors behind the deaths, including shortcomings in preparedness and emergency response, rather than use the fires to justify repression.

Amnesty researcher Nadege Lahmar described a return to executions as a “deeply retrograde response” that conflicts with the right to life and Algeria’s international human rights obligations. The organization said official figures recorded 12 deaths and 54 hospitalizations on 26 August, while other credible sources later reported higher casualties.

Algeria has not carried out an execution since 1993, though courts continue to issue death sentences, most often for murder. Amnesty noted that arson can already carry the death penalty if it causes death, while authorities expanded capital punishment to several drug-related offences in July 2025. Algeria is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which restricts use of the penalty to the “most serious crimes”.