Swiss-indicted Algerian military figure dies

Khaled Nezzar pictured in Paris in 2002. Keystone / Amel Pain

Former Algerian Defence Minister Khaled Nezzar, who was being prosecuted in Switzerland for crimes against humanity, died on Friday in Algiers at the age of 86, the country’s state television announced.

A retired general, Nezzar was suspected of having approved and coordinated torture operations during Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s, when he was minister of defence.

At the end of August, Swiss courts announced his indictment, arguing that he had “placed trusted individuals in key positions and knowingly and deliberately created structures aimed at exterminating the Islamist opposition”.

“The independence of the judiciary does not justify irresponsibility, nor does it justify any judicial system assuming the absolute right to judge the policies of a sovereign and independent state,” reacted the Algerian foreign ministry reaction at the time.

+ Read more: universal jurisdiction gains ground in Switzerland

In a message of condolence to Nezzar’s family, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune paid tribute on Friday to “one of the most eminent military figures” who devoted his life “to the service of the nation”.

Algeria underwent a civil war from 1992 to 2002, after the military interrupted a legislative electoral process that was set to hand victory to the banned Islamic Salvation Front. According to official estimates, some 200,000 people died during this “black decade”.

Nezzar was arrested in Geneva in October 2011, while residing in Switzerland, following a complaint lodged by a Swiss NGO, before being released. He later left Switzerland.

In 2017, the Office of the Attorney General dropped proceedings against Nezzar, on the grounds that Switzerland did not have jurisdiction to convict him. An appeal forced a reopening of proceedings in 2018.

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].