Algerian president leaves French hospital

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who suffered from a stroke last year, quit French hospital in the southern town of Grenoble, where he was hospitalized since Thursday, local media reported on Saturday.
According to the news channel BFMTV, Bouteflika, 77 years old, quit the hospital and is expected to return home later on Saturday.
Citing unidentified sources, the local newspaper Le Dauphine Libere said the Algerian president was admitted to the cardiology and cardio-vascular diseases division of Grenoble mutualist clinic.
In April 2013, Bouteflika suffered a stroke and had been hospitalized in Paris hospital for a long treatment.
Despite his health problems, Bouteflika has been in power for 15 years, won a fourth mandate last April with the support of more than 80 percent of votes.
A member of the National Liberation Front party which rules Algeria since wining independence from France in 1962, he gained popular support after the implementation of a reconciliation plan with the Islamist insurgents that ended a decade-long civil war.
The health of the Algerian president has been a key factor for the stability of the North African oil exporter that is emerging from a long and bloody conflict against Islamist fighters.