Algeria sentences 38 to death

Thirty-eight people were sentenced to death in Algeria yesterday over the lynching of a man who was accused of arson while trying to fight deadly wildfires. The death sentences will be commuted to life in prison as the North African country has maintained a moratorium on capital punishment since the last executions in 1993. The 38-year-old painter Djamel Ben Ismail was killed in the northeastern Kabylie region, setting off a wave of revulsion across the country in 2021. Ben Ismail had turned himself in to police after hearing he was suspected of arson at the height of blazes which killed at least 90 people nationwide. Videos posted online showed a crowd surrounding a police van and beating a man inside it, then dragging him out and setting him on fire.