ALGERIA: RESTORING DEATH PENALTY NEEDS OPEN DEBATE

November 13, 2014: Algerian Justice Minister Tayeb Louh said the restoration of the suspended death penalty in the country requires an open and objective debate, the official APS news agency reported.
Louh made the remarks as he answered a question asked by parliament members at the lower house on the reasons for non- application of the death penalty in Algeria. He said this issue should include all classes of society because of its political, social and moral characters.
Algeria has decided to suspend the application of the death penalty since 1993, amid a decade long civil war that claimed 150, 000 victims. In recent years, some political activists, associations and lawyers pleaded for restoring the death penalty in Algeria, especially following the surge in crimes against children.
The Algerian Penal Code adopted since December, 2013 new provisions concerning the death penalty, which can now be imposed on "child abductors in case the victim dies."
Louh believes that "judicial sanction, in its modern sense, is not of a vindictive nature, but rather aims to protect the society by identifying personal and social causes leading to crime." (Source: Xinhua, 14/11/2014)