From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 52 minutes ago, updated 22 minutes ago
A man stands in front of a fire in the forested hills of the Kabylia region, east of the Algerian capital Algiers, on August 12, 2021. RYAD KRAMDI / AFP
The 38 people were involved in the lynching and burning of a man wrongly accused of pyromania in Kabylia when deadly fires broke out.
According to the official APS agency, the Algiers Court of Appeal on Monday sentenced 38 people to the death penalty for the lynching to death of a man who was mistakenly believed to be an arsonist after he helped put out deadly fires in 2021. These sentences are commuted to life imprisonment because a moratorium on the use of the death penalty has been in effect since 1993.
The lynching that took place in the Kabylia region in the summer of 2021 sparked a wave of outrage across the country. Of the 94 people charged in the case, in addition to the 38 death sentences, the court acquitted 27 people and sentenced the others to prison terms of between three and 20 years, according to the APS.
Burned alive
Those sentenced to death were found guilty in particular of “terrorist and subversive acts that undermined the security of the state, national unity and the stability of institutions”; involvement in intentional homicide; of conspiracy.” In the first instance, 49 people were sentenced to the death penalty in November 2022, seven were acquitted and the others received prison sentences of between two and ten years.
In less than a week in August 2021, fires in Kabylia had killed at least 90 people and devastated thousands of hectares. After learning that he was suspected of starting a fire, 38-year-old painter Djamel Bensmaïl, who helped villagers put out the flames, voluntarily turned himself in to police to give explanations for his presence at locations. Images shared on social media showed a crowd surrounding the police car and taking the young man out of the vehicle.
Mr. Bensmaïl had been beaten and then burned alive, and young people had taken selfies in front of his corpse. The images of the lynching then went viral and were particularly commented on with the hashtag #JusticePourDjamelBenIsmail. The perpetrators of the selfies tried to cover their tracks, but internet users across the country compiled videos and took screenshots to ensure the crime did not go unpunished.
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