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Algeria was shaken on Sunday by a new crime in the series of kidnappings and murders of children, as this time it was a tragic accident in which the 18-year-old “Shaima” died.
Shaima’s body was found in an abandoned gas station in Thania, Boumerdes (50 km east of Algiers).
According to preliminary investigations, the perpetrator of the crime is preceded by the judiciary, and the victim had previously filed a complaint against him for rape in 2016, when he was only 14 years old, and the case was paralyzed, and the offender returned to his acts and kidnapped Shaima in front of his house with knives. He raped her, then burned her body and fled.
Execution and remuneration required
The victim’s mother sent a letter to President Abdul Majeed Tebboune to implement the death penalty and retribution against her daughter, and said in a video posted on social media that she knows the offender and had previously filed a complaint against him. years ago on charges of stalking his daughter.
Hundreds of Algerians sympathized with Shaima’s mother, and various intellectuals and media professionals commented on the incident on social media.
The journalist Mehrez Rabia wrote: “The result is a family in mourning and suffering or no one comforted, this despicable act and the need to reactivate the death penalty in Algeria.”
Journalist Leila Bouzidi wrote: “Justice must act immediately and the media rise up in all its forms against those who justify the murderous rapist for his atrocious crime and incite violence against women.”
The head of the Algerian Network for the Defense of the Rights of the Child, Abdel-Rahman Arara, confirmed that Algeria records more than 9,000 incidents of sexual assault per year, including incest, rape, sexual abuse and cases related to kidnapping, and Algeria This year it counted 13 cases of child abduction this year, without registering. Any victim.
The head of the “Nada” association, considered one of the most famous in defense of children’s rights, believes that the mechanisms adopted to combat this phenomenon did not deviate from the security framework, and Arara told Sky News Arabia: Measures taken in Algeria to eliminate this phenomenon focus on deterrence. Security forces without accompanying measures directed at the children and families of the victims. “
He added: “Unfortunately, they do not work with social and health actors, and support is not provided to the families of the victims.” Once the legal paperwork is complete, the family is left to its own potential and struggles with problems, not to mention the tragedy of families who have never found their children.
Algerian law includes around 18 crimes punishable by death, all related to the loss of human life, while article 293 bis of the Penal Code establishes that the penalty for kidnapping ranges from 10 to 20 years in prison, and can get to execution, if the abducted person dies, according to Sky. Arab news.
Legal experts believe that Algeria will proceed with the implementation of this punishment, despite the fact that it has signed the International Agreement on Civil and Human Rights.
The President of the National Council for Human Rights and Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Professor Bouzid Lazhari, declared that Algeria will re-apply the death penalty against child abductors.
In recent years, voices have been calling on the Algerian authorities to provide more measures to protect children against kidnapping, noting that there are 5 million children under the age of 5 in Algeria and 13 million children under the age of 18.
In addition to being a popular demand, many activist organizations and associations, including “Asociación Nada”, call for the application of the death penalty against the perpetrators of the crime of murder of children.
“Our position is clear on the death penalty, and it should apply to the perpetrators of the crime of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault of minors,” said the president of Al-Jumaiah.
The ball is in the executive court
In a new step to end these crimes that devour the body of society, the Ministry of Justice has enacted, by order of President Abdul Majeed Tabun, a special bill that includes stricter penalties for child abductors.
The new law stipulates life imprisonment for those who kidnap children and find them unharmed, while the penalty is death for killing children and torturing their bodies.
Law researcher Ammar Khababa believes that what is missing in Algeria today is not the enactment of new laws, but the activation of existing legal texts.
He told Sky News Arabia: “Algerian courts have handed down death sentences, but the matter is up to the executive authority.” Khababa asked: “Why are we going to amend the law and why are we talking about new laws to apply the death penalty to perpetrators of child murders when the legal texts are already there.”
And the death penalty has been suspended in Algeria since 1993, and subsequently Algeria pressured human rights organizations to sign an agreement with the United Nations suspending the application of death sentences handed down by Algerian courts.
Khababa highlighted the need to apply the death penalty and said: “We are committed to the application of this punishment, and today it is a popular demand and I believe that the current authority will seek to apply it to the perpetrators of the crime of kidnapping, rape and murder of children. after this crime has eroded the body of Algerian society in recent years. “
Algeria has witnessed a notable increase in the kidnapping rate of children, which has increased recently, especially in 2011 and 2012.
In 2014, 220 kidnapping attempts were registered. And in 2016, 52 cases of child abduction were recorded, most of them were followed by security efforts, while 7 of them were found dead.
Card for stalkers
In an academic study by researcher Sonnet Ben Taiba, within the Annals of the University of Social and Human Sciences Guelma entitled “The phenomenon of child abduction in Algeria – its dimensions and strategy to combat it”, the researcher concluded that the reasons for the kidnapping are multiple: among them are economic motives such as demanding a ransom, or the trafficking of children or their human organs, or for witchcraft and witchcraft purposes, or a reflection of family disputes such as the flight of the child abroad, or criminal objectives with the intention of sexually assaulting the victim and, sadly, they often end up killing the child to erase evidence.
Those who oppose the application of the death penalty in Algeria see the matter from another angle, and for them, life imprisonment is more severe than the death penalty, as Algerian lawyer Omar Farouk Soleimani told “Sky News Arabia” , who believes that there is a fear of using punishment against political opponents. The punishment did not discourage child abductors and rapists in many countries, for example in the United States of America, where crimes continue through heinous and inhuman acts, despite the application of this punishment in some states.
The lawyer emphasized that the State can begin to apply the death penalty on a small scale in response to popular demand for it, especially in recent years after the phenomenon of kidnapping and murder of children has spread, but this punishment it can heal the elite of those with rights and is not a solution to a social problem that has recently worsened.
The Algerian lawyer also believes that ending this phenomenon related to child abduction is not only by emphasizing deterrence mechanisms, but by intensifying child protection measures, drawing up a national card for stalkers and kidnappers, as well as a national plan for urgent intervention. in case of a kidnapping case.
Her words are evidenced in the story of the girl Shaima, whose rapist managed to kidnap her, kill her and burn her body, and this was not revealed until four days later, and her murderer had previously raped her, since she filed a complaint in against him and received punishment, but he repeated his heinous act again.
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