Algeria denies Trevidic authorisation

Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ammar Belani has denied claims by French investigating judge Marc Trevidic that he had been given permission to enter Algeria in March to investigate the 1996 kidnapping and murder of seven French monks at Tibhirine in the province of Médéa. In a telephone conversation with Belani, the foreign affair official told Arabstoday that Judge Trevidic’s remarks were “wholly and utterly false.” Belani said the issue was still “under study” and that Algeria has not given the French judicial investigator the green light to enter the country and investigate the murders. The ministerial spokesperson also denied the existence of a list of names mentioned by the French judge in his interview with France24, including the name of "al-Bara" reported by the French media outlet as a main lead. Belani added that Algerian French authorities have not set an agenda or appointed a date to reopen investigations into the case of the French monks, pointing out that France’s request to conduct investigations was presented approximately a year ago. The investigation overseen by Marc Trevidic was instigated on the basis of fresh confessions by the military staff doctor at the French embassy in Algiers as well the French consul at the time of the incident. The emergence of the new confessions prompted then-President Nicolas Sarkozy to lift the "military secrets" status of a bundle of documents relating to the case. Previous statements by Francois Buchwalter, who was France’s military attaché in Algeria at the time of the incident, had accused the French army of accidentally killing the monks while attempting to rescue them from their kidnappers. This had prompted Trevidic to request the lifting of the secret status of documents including memoranda by General Philippe Rondot regarding investigations into the Tibhirine monks’ demise. The seven monks had lived in the Tibhirine Monastery in the Atlas heights of Médéa before they were kidnapped on a March evening in 1996 by a terrorist organisation known as the Armed Islamic Group [Groupe Islamique Armé, GIA]. The group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, which was also confirmed by a number of penitent former terrorists as well as the monks’ colleagues whose testimonies were published by French media outlets.