Algeria sentences 49 to death

An Algerian court yesterday sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires in August last year, state media reported. The North African country has, however, maintained a moratorium on carrying out death sentences since the last executions in 1993. Onlookers had beaten 38-year-old Djamel Ben Ismail to death after he turned himself in at a police station in the Tizi Ouzou region. He had gone there upon hearing that he was suspected of arson, at the height of blazes which killed at least 90 people nationwide.