An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced 49 people to death on charges of fatally burning a man more than a year ago during mass wildfires in the North African country.
In August 2021, Algerian media reported that a mob had burnt an Algerian man to death after suspecting him of involvement in sparking the fires in the eastern province of Tizi Ouzou.
A criminal court in the capital Algiers on Thursday issued preliminary death sentences against 49 defendants in the case, Algeria's state news agency APS reported.
Twenty-eight others were handed jail terms ranging from 10 to two years and ordered to pay varying fines.
The court acquitted 17 other defendants in the same case, according to APS.
Last year, fires broke out in 17 Algerian provinces amid scorching temperatures, and authorities said at the time evidence showed the blazes had been started deliberately.
