La justice va vers le rétablissement de la peine de mort

Justice moves towards the reinstatement of the death penalty

Child abduction, murders and drug trafficking

It’s almost official, if it isn’t already. According to statements widely reported on Monday by the President of the Court of Béjaïa, Mustapha Smati, a return to the application of the death penalty in Algeria is looming. A sentence suspended since 1993 and its reinstatement will concern in particular cases linked to murders, child kidnapping and drug trafficking in schools.
After noting that this decision interprets the commitments of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the magistrate suggested that it will soon be proclaimed.
Pressure from the streets ended up convincing, even pushing, senior state leaders to take into consideration the great anger of Algerians at the resurgence of cases of child kidnapping and the atrocious way in which they are treated by soulless kidnappers.
Child abduction cases have taken on alarming proportions over the last two years, fueling the great anger of Algerians, even calling for a return to the execution of child abductors. A return which seems to be heading straight to the point after the statements made the day before yesterday Monday by the Magistrate of the Court of Béjaïa, Mustapha Smati who bluntly, even directly announced the “soon” return of the application of the death penalty in cases linked to this criminal scourge.
Indeed, the President of the Court of Béjaïa, declared the day before yesterday Monday, in remarks reported by several media, that it will be “proceeded, in the future, to return to the application of the death penalty, frozen since 1993, in cases linked to the kidnapping of children and the promotion of drugs in schools, in accordance with the commitments of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, during his speech at the opening of the year judicial last week. The words of the senior judicial official of the Béjaïa Court sparked strong reactions and questions, with some interpreting them as an official decision to resume the execution of capital sentences handed down by the competent courts to counter the very worrying and unbearable increase in the scourge of child kidnapping. Better still, a reliable ministerial source, on the same day, provided clarifications on this subject by revealing to the Algerian Arabic-speaking newspaper El-Khabar that the reestablishment of the death penalty against the child kidnappers is at the stage of reflection at the highest summit of the State. Still according to the national daily El-Khabar, the source at the Ministry of Justice clarified that the initiative has not yet reached the decision stage, and that it remains for the moment at the state of “will, orientation or reflection on the reactivation of the application of the death penalty”. The State is currently analyzing the impact of this major decision on all levels, including externally, even outside the country. On the other hand, the debate on the return to the execution of capital punishment in the country after 35 years of freezing, particularly in cases of child kidnapping and drug trafficking in schools, has found a favorable response among a large part of the Algerian population. Many Algerians shared the statements of the President of the Court, especially after significant cases of kidnapping and murder of children in atrocious circumstances, the latest being that of little Abderrahmane in Chlef, around ten days ago.
Missing for four long days, little Abderrahmane, barely 4 years old, was found lifeless on October 10 after intense search operations carried out by the various Police and National Gendarmerie Brigades as part of the National Alert Plan for disappearance and kidnapping of children. In Algeria, the death penalty is a legal sanction provided for by the penal code which has no longer been applied since 1993.
Courts continue to hand down death sentences, particularly in cases of terrorism, but the sentences are not carried out; Algeria practicing a de facto moratorium. However, the social impact of cases of child kidnapping has created psychological trauma for Algerians and especially for the parents of the child victims of the kidnapping. A situation that has become unbearable for civil society, pushing the country’s high authorities to take the final verdict against soulless criminal kidnappers.
Finally, between 2005 and 2025, more than 1,500 children were kidnapped, it should be remembered.
Sofiane Abi