Algeria moves to expand death penalty

Algeria’s lower house of parliament has approved expanding the death penalty to cover forest and field arson and crimes against children. The North African country retains capital punishment, but no executions have been carried out since 1993.

The People’s National Assembly moved to make the amendments to the Penal Code on Thursday. The legislation must still pass the Council of the Nation, parliament’s upper house, before taking effect.

“The adoption of the death penalty for these acts is the appropriate legal response to curb these crimes,” Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa said following the vote.

The legislation introduces capital punishment for “anyone who deliberately sets fire to forests, bushes, or fields, whether planted, unplanted, trees, or parts of forests” and timber stored within forest areas. The amendments would raise the maximum punishment for such offenses from 20 years in prison to death. Algerian law already allowed the death penalty for arson if the fire resulted in a person’s death.

The changes follow a wave of deadly wildfires that swept parts of Algeria in late summer. At least 12 people were killed, while on August 27 alone, Civil Protection recorded 193 fires across several provinces. Three days later, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune instructed the justice minister to amend the Penal Code to expand the application of capital punishment for arson.

The amendments also apply capital punishment to certain forms of intentional destruction of public or private property carried out on behalf of foreign parties in cases involving treason, espionage, or organized crime, according to Algeria Press Service (APS).

The revised code expands the use of the death penalty for crimes against children, prescribing capital punishment for anyone who abducts, tortures or sexually assaults a child or amputates one of a child’s limbs. Those convicted of the offenses would also be barred from invoking mitigating circumstances.

The tougher penalties for crimes against children were added to the proposed amendments in early September, amid public outrage over the killing of a five-year-old boy in Blida Province. The authorities have also linked the measure to an increase in such crimes in recent years, without providing nationwide figures.

The NADA Network for the Defense of Children’s Rights has estimated that around 1,000 children in Algeria are victims of abductions or attempted abductions each year, according to figures cited in a 2026 academic study.

In Algeria, capital punishment is already provided for offenses including murder and certain terrorism and state-security crimes. In 2025, its scope was expanded to cover several drug-related offenses. Algerian courts have continued to hand down death sentences, but no executions have been carried out for more than 30 years.

The death penalty remains on the books in a number of African countries, although most have either abolished it or stopped carrying out executions. 

Amnesty International criticized the bill and urged Algeria’s upper house to reject it. The group called the move a “dangerous step backwards” and warned that it comes alongside government statements indicating that executions could resume after more than three decades.