Algerian president orders death-penalty proposal after deadly wildfires

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the justice minister to submit a penal-code amendment by September 15 that would allow capital punishment for deliberately starting forest fires, state media reported. Algeria has not carried out an execution since 1993.

The order followed wildfires that killed at least 12 people and injured 54 in northeastern Algeria. Tebboune suggested some blazes may have been deliberately set, but authorities had not established that claim.