Former Algerian Defense Minister Khaled Nezzar has died in Algiers at the age of 86. The retired general was suspected of coordinating torture against Islamist opponents during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s.
Published on: December 30, 2023 – 5:09 p.m
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Khaled Nezzar was charged by the Swiss judiciary with “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”. The day before her death, she announced that her trial would begin in June 2024.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune paid tribute to “one of the most important military men” who dedicated his life “to the service of the nation”.
The former Algerian defense minister symbolized for years the security and even repressive policies of the Algerian regime at the beginning of the black decade, that is, since the 1991 parliamentary elections, which were interrupted by the authorities. The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) is on the verge of an election victory. The country then plunged into a ten-year civil war between the ruling military and the Islamists.
From 1992 to 1994 he was one of the five members of the High State Committee chaired by Mohamed Boudiaf. He then retired, but remained very influential within the regime and ensured that the army's interests were protected.
He was arrested in Geneva in 2011 and officially charged by the Swiss judiciary twelve years later. She accuses him of knowingly and intentionally creating structures aimed at destroying the Islamist opposition.
Khaled Nezar was born in 1937 and belonged to the generation of independence fighters. In 1958 he left the French army to join the Algerian National Liberation Army. In October 1988, as then chief of staff of the army, he bloodily suppressed the popular uprising against the National Liberation Front. At least 500 people are killed.
Also listen to the trial of former Algerian general Khaled Nezzar in Switzerland: decoding with Benoît Meystre (lawyer)