ALGERIA'S SMOKE-AND-MIRRORS DEATH PENALTY DEBATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 000002

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/04/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL AG
SUBJECT: ALGERIA'S SMOKE-AND-MIRRORS DEATH PENALTY DEBATE

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: 2008 closed with disproportionate media and
public attention being paid to the death penalty debate in
Algeria -- a debate largely theoretical since no executions
have taken place since 1993. Toward the end of the year
human rights activists and an opposition party increased
their push to abolish capital punishment, but met with
resistance from Muslim clerics. Algerian courts handed down
over 300 death sentences in 2008. The vast majority were
delivered in absentia, designed as much to wage a public
propaganda and deterrence campaign against terrorism as to
render justice on the accused. The abolishment cause has
been taken up by the government's human rights body, which
has announced it will hold a seminar on capital punishment
later in January. END SUMMARY.

SENTENCING INVISIBLE TERRORISTS
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2. (C) Although Algerian courts frequently hand down death
sentences, the last execution took place in 1993 when the
government ordered the execution of seven terrorists found
guilty of bombing the Algiers airport. According to human
rights activist Amar Zaidi, Algerian courts rendered nearly
300 death sentences in 2008, ranking Algeria third in the
world (after China and Pakistan) in the number of death
sentences passed. The 2008 figure was up from 271 such
sentences in 2007. The vast majority were handed down in
absentia on terrorism suspects not in custody, and appeared
as such to be designed to intimidate and deter would-be
terrorists. Under Algerian law courts may impose the death
penalty for acts of treason, espionage, sabotage, homicide or
terrorism.


3. (C) In the current debate on the abolition of capital
punishment in Algeria, the Algerian League for the Defense of
Human Rights (LADDH) and the opposition Rally for Culture and
Democracy (RCD) have found common cause with Farouk Ksentini,
chair of the government's National Council for the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights (CNCPPDH). All three
organizations have spoken publicly in recent months about the
need to purge the death penalty from Algeria's criminal code.
Ksentini recently called the death penalty outdated and said
it needed to be replaced. Human rights lawyer Miloud Brahimi
told us recently that Algeria must abolish the death penalty
"if it wants to rise among advanced countries in terms of
respect for human rights." LADDH Chairman Mostefa Bouchachi
has also been vocal in the press, adding that death sentences
have done nothing to reduce crime. In parliament, the RCD
has taken the lead on the issue and in December began pushing
for legislation to eliminate the death penalty from Algeria's
body of laws.

NOT SO FAST, SAY CLERICS
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4. (C) While support for abolition seems to be growing from
independent and pro-government camps alike, Algeria's clerics
have entered the fray to oppose the initiative. The
president of Algeria's Muslim Clerics Association, Cheik
Abderrahmane Chibane, confirmed to us recently his public
statements that the death penalty should be maintained in
strict adherence to Islamic law. Chibane said calls to ban
the death penalty went against the values of Algerian
Muslims, referring to the Qur'anic verse 178 of Surat
al-Baqara: "O believers, it is obligatory upon you to take
retaliation of the blood of those killed innocently."
Chibane also underscored his belief that the death penalty
was an effective deterrent against crime and a "simple"
measure for preventing murders.

COMMENT
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5. (C) Almost all of Algeria's death penalty cases are
propaganda tools, handed down at the end of show trials and
fed to the media without even having the accused in custody.
The debate heated up in the press and in government during
November and December, with the RCD pushing for a ban in
parliament and Ksentini announcing the holding of a seminar
on capital punishment later in January. The debate is
relevant to the extent that it pits Islamic thinkers against

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their secular-minded counterparts, but on a practical level
it is unlikely to change anything in view of the complete
absence of executions for more than 15 years. In order to
present a motion in parliament, the RCD must muster the
support of 20 parliamentarians, but it currently holds only
19 seats. According to journalist Adlene Meddi of
French-language daily El Watan, the death penalty debate is
largely smoke and mirrors, "yet another distraction" cooked
up to divert popular attention away from Algeria's
socioeconomic ills and the political machinations leading up
to the April presidential elections.
PEARCE