Algerian lawmakers adopted on Thursday a law imposing the death penalty on convicted forest arsonists, after deadly wildfires ripped through swathes of the country in recent weeks. The official death toll from the blazes, which swept through the country’s northeast during the summer, was 12 people, but witnesses have reported the deaths of dozens. Algeria had upheld a moratorium on the death penalty since 1993, but in August, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the justice minister to amend the penal code to broaden the list of crimes for which capital punishment is allowed. Lawmakers on Thursday also voted to extend capital punishment to child kidnappings involving torture, sexual assault or mutilation. “The adoption of the death penalty for these acts is the appropriate legal response to curb these crimes,” Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa told parliament after the vote.