Algeria orders probe into mob killing linked to wildfires
13 August 2021, 16:34
The fires have killed at least 69 people in the mountainous Berber region.
An Algerian prosecutor has ordered an investigation into the death of a man who was killed by a mob after being accused of setting fires that devastated part of the country, the official APS news agency said.
Wildfires have killed at least 69 people through the mountainous Berber region.
The killing took place in Larbaa Nath Irathen, in the Tizi Ouzou district, one of the worst hit by the fires.
The victim was identified as 38-year-old Djamel Ben Ismail.
The local prosecutor issued a statement “following videos on Wednesday on social media showing the killing of a citizen (burned to death and lynched)”.
He ordered an investigation with the aim of identifying the assailants and sending them to trial “so that the odious crime does not go unpunished”.
The statement said a crowd attacked the police station where the victim was under protection from officers and managed to remove him.
They “dragged him outside, beating and burning him, which led to his death”.
“Police officers who intervened to protect and help the victim have also been injured,” the statement said.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called on justice officials to “shed light” on the killing.
On Wednesday, Mr Ben Ismail had tweeted that he would head to the Kabyle region, 200 miles from his home, to “give a hand to our friends” fighting the fires.
On his arrival near the town of Larbaa Nath Irathen, some local residents accused him of being an arsonist, his father said.
“My son left to help his brothers from Kabyle, a region he loves, they burned him alive. I’m devastated,” Noureddine Ben Ismail said.
Amnesty International called on Algerian authorities to immediately investigate the death and “send a clear message that this violence won’t go unpunished”.
Mr Ben Ismail was buried late on Thursday in his home town of Khemis Miliana, 70 miles west of Algiers.
“Do you realise, even dead they tortured him?” his uncle Mohamed Khalfi told the Associated Press.
“And what hurts me is that the people filmed. I am his uncle and I ask that justice do its job and that even those who watched without doing anything be judged.”
One of Mr Ben Ismail’s friends, Rafik, who did not provide his last name, said he was “an artist, a young man who loves the guitar and loves life… not a violent man”.
