The Algiers Court of Appeal has sentenced to death 38 people accused of burning a young man alive in the forest fires that devastated large parts of Kabylia in the summer of 2021. This was reported by the official Algerian news agency APS.
The convicts were accused, among other things, of “committing terrorist acts and acts of sabotage against the security of the state, national unity and the stability of institutions” as well as “participation in deliberate murders, torture and the spread of hate speech”.
Six defendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while 14 others were sentenced to three years in prison. A total of 69 defendants were brought to trial in this case. The events date back to August 2021, when activists posted a video on social media, which later went viral, showing a group of people torturing and burning alive a young man in the middle of a public square in the region Larbaâ Nath Irathen, in Tizi Ouzou Province, Kabylia.
The use of the death penalty has been suspended in Algeria since 1993, but courts continue to impose the death penalty in many criminal cases.
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