48 Algerians were sentenced to death, accused of killing, dragging and burning a young man
A year and 3 months after the horrific crime that shook Algeria, during the period of control of fires in the forests of the Kabylie region, and the young man, Jamal Ben Ismail, was killed. Carrying out terrorist and sabotage acts, targeting state security, national unity, and the stability and normal functioning of institutions.
The court ruled to convict 15 of the arrested defendants to 10 years in prison, and 100,000 Algerian dinars as a fine in force, with the conviction of 7 defendants who were not arrested with sentences ranging from 10 to 3 years in prison, with two being imprisoned during the session.
The defendants insisted on denying the facts and charges attributed to them, and some of them indicated that their presence at the scene was for the purpose of curiosity and not to participate in the commission of the crime.
According to "Sky News Arabia", the Public Prosecution Office had demanded, during its pleading, the application of the death penalty against 74 of the 102 defendants who were arrested in the case of killing and burning the body of the young Jamal bin Ismail.
The details of the case go back to August 2021, when videos of the killing of the young man, Jamal Ben Ismail, 37, in Tizi Ouzou governorate (150 km east of the capital, Algiers), were spread on social media.
Ben Ismail had gone to the Kabylie region, on his own initiative, coming from Miliana governorate to participate in putting out the fires, so the perpetrators of the crime arrested him and handed him over to the police, suspecting that he was behind the arson.
But they were not satisfied with that, as they stormed the police station, took him out by force, killed him, dragged his body, and burned it in public.
The accident almost caused a major crisis in Algeria, but the wisdom of the father of the murdered young man put an end to a great strife that almost broke out between the residents of the two provinces.
The issuance of these sentences comes at a time when Algerian law has frozen the application of the death penalty for more than 40 years.
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