The scene is of rare violence.
Dozens of individuals attacked, a few days ago, Djamel Ben Ismaïl, 38, wrongly accused of pyromania in Kabylia, a region strongly affected by the fires that affected the Maghreb last week.
After hearing that he was suspected of being responsible for part of the fires, the man went to the police to express his innocence.
After surrounding the van carrying him, the attackers beat him and set his body on fire before taking selfies in front of the corpse.
Djamel Ben Ismaïl had nevertheless volunteered to extinguish the flames near Tizi Ouzou.
Algerian police claimed to have arrested 61 people "involved to varying degrees in the murder, immolation and mutilation of a corpse, the destruction of property and the violation of a police headquarters", according to the country's authorities. .
Fires linked to a terrorist movement?
So far, the Algerian authorities seem to dismiss Djamel Ben Ismaïl's responsibility for the outbreak of these terrible fires.
According to them, the majority of the fires which have struck Kabylia, a Berber-speaking region, are indeed of "criminal" origin, but their suspicions are directed towards the MAK (movement for the self-determination of Kabylia) banned in Algeria and based in Paris.
The investigation made it possible to "discover that a criminal network, classified as a terrorist organization", is behind the fires, "according to the admission of its arrested members", assures the police without providing tangible evidence.
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However, some arrested suspects have admitted to belonging to this movement. Born in the wake of the "Kabyle Spring" of 2001, the MAK is one of the pet peeves of the regime, which accuses it of "separatist" aims. Saïd Salhi, the president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, was worried about the "political" dimension that the investigation is taking, according to him. "Only a fair trial can reveal the truth and do justice to Djamel," he told AFP.
