Nadjib Bitam: “Death Penalty Should Be Applied Against Child Kidnappers, Killers”

Lawyers appreciated the Cabinet decisions regarding tightening legal deterrence measures to protect citizens from criminal gangs and banning the import of cold weapons, asserting the importance of the effective implementation of the penal code, because it is responsible, in aspects of it, with the crimes of creating criminal gangs to commit misdemeanours, felonies, carry white arms, beatings and theft.

In the context, lawyer Nadjib Bitam welcomed the new deterrent measures included in the new text, especially those related to the issue of banning the import and sale of white arms, which he said has intensified and spread remarkably, as these weapons are being sold in the market without any supervision, including tear sprays and even cold weapons, which are sold on sidewalks and markets ahead of Eid al-Adha.

“The strengthening of Algerian legislation with a text and special provisions for preventing the sale and import of weapons can contribute to reducing the phenomenon of neighbourhood gangs that terrorize the population and create an atmosphere of insecurity among citizens”.

“The policy of deterring gangs and tightening penalties cannot succeed if they do not find cooperation and response from civil society activities, which was confirmed by the President during the Cabinet meeting, as activating the culture of civil feeling and reporting the perpetrators of crimes in neighbourhoods is important to accompany the policy of deterrence, and the need to review the educational curricula for children and adolescents in middle and high schools through teaching them the law to educate them about the dangers of carrying weapons and the penalties and problems that result from it”.

“The new thing of the Council of Ministers is to strengthen the protection of the security personnel in charge of confronting organized gangs in the neighbourhoods, especially when they face attacks with stones, Molotov cocktails and even insulting and smashing vehicles during their intervention to break the confrontations and arrest the perpetrators of crimes. There are provisions of a law that punishes insulting employees while performing their duties in addition to punishing the perpetrators of the crimes of theft, beatings, intentional wounding and creating criminal gangs”.

“What is new is the introduction to the amendment and revision of the existing legislation following the developments in society, with an emphasis on the failure of the perpetrators of these crimes to benefit from the presidential pardon, calling for a review of the prison reform law and the allocation of special centres in the form of educational operating institutions, where they are employed in land reclamation, carpentry and mines. This will contribute to the rehabilitation of the prisoner, better than the current policy, which has proven its failure to limit the recidivism and deterrence system. As for toughening penalties for kidnapping crimes, the death penalty should be applied against kidnappers and child killers to reduce this phenomenon”.

For his part, Lawyer Ahmad Dehim said that the problem is not in the legislation, because the Penal Code has separated every crime, including theft, creating a criminal gang, carrying a weapon, beating and intentional wounding, but what is lacking is the proper application of the legal text, indicating that the Penal Code does not find a solution for the gangs’ issue, but it assigned every crime a corresponding penalty.