New provisions prescribing the death penalty for crimes involving forest arson and child kidnapping have taken effect in Algeria under amendments to the penal code, the Algerian Press Service reports.

The amendments, approved by both houses of parliament last week, were published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.

Under the law, capital punishment applies to anyone who deliberately sets fire to forests, wooded areas, cultivated or uncultivated fields or trees and timber within forests.

The provisions also cover anyone who “deliberately” sets fire to public or private property at the instigation of, or for the benefit of a foreign state or party, or as part of crimes involving treason and collusion with an organised criminal group.

Security and public order

They extend to offences targeting security and public order, national unity, institutional stability or the national economy, as well as those damaging the environment, ecological balance, and forest, plant, animal and agricultural resources.

The death penalty also applies to anyone who incites, encourages, finances, plans or participates in such acts, or helps prepare or facilitate them by any means, including information and communication technologies and social media.

Arson resulting in the death of one or more people is also punishable by death.

Child kidnapping

The law prescribes capital punishment for anyone who abducts a child by any means, tortures, sexually assaults or subjects the child to brutal treatment, without prejudice to other penalties stipulated in existing legislation.

It bars those convicted of offences covered by the provisions from benefiting from mitigating circumstances under the penal code.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the reactivation of the death penalty for the crimes following widespread fires in late August that caused loss of life and property damage, particularly in the eastern provinces.