Algeria court sentences dozens to death over forest fire lynching

An Algerian court has sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires during an extended heatwave last year.

The court handed 28 other defendants jail terms of two years to a decade without parole.

the court found that locals in Algeria’s Tizi Ouzou district had beaten 38-year-old Djamel Ben Ismail to death after he was accused of starting the fires that broke out last august and killed at least 90 people across northern Algeria.

Algeria, Africa’s biggest country, was one of several Mediterranean nations to face devastating wildfires last year.