Exploiting Minors To Set Fires And Destroy Forests !

The investigations of the gendarmerie and police services revealed the involvement and exploitation of more than 15 minors in forest fires, while the number of investigations opened by security services in coordination with the Forestry Directorate exceeded 500 in-depth investigations into the main causes of each fire, as the search and investigation process revealed that 80 percent of the fires were intentionally set with premeditation.

In the details, the search and intervention team of the provincial administration of the judicial police for the security of the province of Algiers, on Wednesday before the public prosecutor at the Sidi M’hamed Court in the capital, presented 4 minors who set fire to the forests of Tebessa, while another person who set fires to the forests of the eastern province of Guelma was presented in front of the same judicial authority.

On Tuesday, the security services presented the minors “Mohammadiya.Z” and “Wadjih Abdel-Madjid.Ch”, aged 15 and 16, respectively, before the Public Prosecutor at the Sidi M’hamed Court in the capital, after they were caught red-handed, while trying to set fires in one of the forests of Bordj Bou Arreridj, the juvenile judge decided of the same court to place them under judicial supervision because they were minors.

The minors involved in setting fires to many forests were proven guilty of the crime with evidence and clues, as after their arrest and examination of their mobile phones, videos were found documenting attempts to set fire, and the minors involved in forest fires are followed up with heavy charges related to sabotage acts, compromising state security and spreading terror among the population.

The population is in an atmosphere of insecurity through moral assault on people, and they were charged with the felony of arson of forest heritage and the felony of assault on the ocean by introducing and throwing a substance that would put human, animal, environment and nature health at risk.

On the matter, lawyer Moaness Lakhdari confirmed, on Wednesday, to “Echorouk”, that the exploitation of minors and their incitement to criminal and subversive acts is a heinous crime, for which the original perpetrator, i.e. the instigator, is punished with severe penalties, and therefore the charges against them are heavy charges related to carrying out sabotage acts and prejudice to the security of the state and the spreading of terror among the citizens, in addition to the deliberate burning of forested heritage and the assault on the surroundings by introducing and throwing a substance that would put the health of humans, animals, the environment and nature at risk.

For her part, Lawyer Nadjiba Djilali stressed that the crimes of burning forests and setting fires are no less dangerous than terrorist crimes, and they can be classified on the basis of a felony, given that those involved fall under the banner of “a group of evildoers” among the instigators who are adults and the executors who are minors.
The latter added, that the new forest draft law includes articles of a penal nature that stresses those who deliberately cause fires up to 15, 20 years and even life in prison, in order to deter such behavior that stands behind devouring thousands of hectares and causing damage to trees and agricultural crops and sometimes to livestock.

As for the exploitation of minors, the text criminalizing the exploitation of minors was stipulated in Article 380 of the Penal Code, and the legislator intended to protect minors from those who try to exploit them for the purpose of obtaining from them obligations, or absolved them, or any other actions to their detriment.