An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced 49 people to death for the 2021 lynching in Kabylia of a man wrongly accused of arson, but those sentences are expected to be commuted to life imprisonment under a moratorium on executions, the media reported. The defendants were found guilty of the lynching of Djamel Bensmaïl, who volunteered in the village of Larbaa Nath Irathen in Tizi Ouzou prefecture (northeast) to help put out the forest fires that had claimed 90 lives in less than a week in August 2021.
A first number of 48 convictions called
After the media had initially reported 48 death sentences, according to the official agency APS there are 49. Although the death penalty is provided for in Algeria’s penal code, it is no longer applied due to a moratorium in force since 1993. The defendants, who appeared before the Dar El Beida court in the eastern suburbs of Algiers, were specifically charged with “terrorist and subversive acts against the state and national unity” and “premeditated homicide,” according to prosecutors.
28 other defendants charged in this case were sentenced to prison terms of between two and ten years, and 17 others were acquitted. Djamel Bensmaïl, 38, turned himself in to the police after hearing that he was suspected of starting the fire in the forest. Images shared by social media showed the crowd surrounding the police van and extricating the man from the vehicle after hitting him. Bensmaïl was then beaten and then burned alive while young people took selfies in front of the corpse.
“The scenes (…) are shocking,” affirmed the LADDH
At the time of the events, which sparked national outrage, the viral images of the lynching were notably commented on using the hashtag #JusticePourDjamelBenIsmail. Amnesty International had called on the authorities to “send a clear message that this violence will not be tolerated”. For its part, the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) had judged that “the scenes of the lynching and burning of the alleged arsonist, when it was a young artist who came to help the victims, are shocking .”
The victim’s father, Noureddine Bensmaïl, with admirable dignity, was hailed as a national hero after calling for calm and brotherhood among Algerians. Excerpts from videos posted by the defendants on social media showing details of the crime were shown during the trial, which opened on Tuesday. These videos show the lynching of Djamel Bensmaïl, burned alive and robbed of his personal belongings, including his mobile phone.