Concern grows over Algeria's plans to end moratorium on death penalty

While Algeria has not carried out an execution since 1993, it has handed down the death sentence since that time, including in terror-related cases, but without carrying it out.

In 2023 more than 50 people were sentenced to death – some in absentia – over the lynching of a 38-year-old man who was falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires two years earlier.

Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa presented the changes to a parliamentary committee on Monday, after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for tougher penalties following deadly wildfires in August.

These crimes "directly threaten security, public order, and social stability," Boudjemaa said.

Algeria struggled to tackle the fires, which swept through the northeast of the country and killed 12 people according to an official tally. 

The second article of the law concerns crimes against children – specifically the perpetrators of kidnapping and acts of abuse or mutilation against minors.

Tebboune said those sentenced to death should be executed immediately after exhausting their right to appeal.

Algeria mourns wildfire victims as firefighters battle deadly blazes

'Institutional responsibilities'

Aissa Rahmoune, secretary-general of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and president of the Collective for the Safeguarding of the Algerian League for Human Rights, told RFI the country is neglecting its responsibilities when it comes to the crimes behind the proposed changes to the penal code. 

"There is the authorities' withdrawal from the moratorium signed in 1993, but also the fact that the Algerian regime is failing to shoulder its institutional responsibilities regarding the recent fires that caused loss of life and material damage."

The expanded death penalty would specifically target the instigators, planners, and perpetrators of acts of deliberate fire-starting.

Forest fires occur regularly in northern Algeria during the summer, but climate change is amplifying their impact by causing increasingly frequent droughts and intense heat. However, Tebboune alleged that there was "something criminal" about the blazes.

Human rights

Several human rights organisations signed an open letter this week calling on Algerian authorities to halt any legislative changes and maintain the moratorium on the death penalty – and move towards abolishing it altogether.

They point out that the death penalty has "never deterred arsonists from committing their crimes, and that, out of respect for the memory of those who perished in the fires, the perpetrators must indeed face the law to answer for their actions and make amends for the damage caused, including the loss of human life."

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Earlier this month, human rights group Amnesty International also voiced its concern. 

"Algeria's authorities must immediately abandon any plans to expand the scope of the death penalty or resume executions after more than three decades without carrying one out," it said in a statement.

It called for the country to impose an official moratorium "as a first step towards fully abolishing the death penalty".

According to data collected by Amnesty International , there were at least 273 people on death row in Algeria at the end of 2025.

The NGO recorded at least 2,707 executions in 2025 in 17 countries, a sharp increase of 78 percent from the 1,518 known executions in 2024.

(with AFP)