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 -------------- ¶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 Ksentini recently called the death penalty outdated and said it needed to be replaced.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 -------------- ¶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 -------------- ¶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 ALGIERS 00000002 002 OF 002 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