Swiss justice announced on Tuesday August 29 the indictment of former Algerian defense minister Khaled Nezzar for crimes against humanity, suspected of having approved and coordinated torture during the civil war in the 1990s.
In a statement, the Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC, Attorney General) argues that Khaled Nezzar “as an influential person in Algeria in his capacity as Minister of Defense and member of the High Committee of State has placed people of confidence in key positions and knowingly and deliberately created structures aimed at exterminating Islamist opposition”. “War crimes and widespread and systematic persecution of civilians accused of sympathizing with opponents followed,” the MPC said.
Mr. Nezzar, now 85, was arrested in Geneva in October 2011 – while residing in Switzerland – following a complaint filed by TRIAL International, a Swiss NGO fighting impunity for war crimes. Released at the end of the hearings, he had left Switzerland. In 2017, the Attorney General dismissed the proceedings on the grounds that the Algerian civil war did not constitute an “internal armed conflict” and that Switzerland, therefore, did not have jurisdiction to try possible war crimes in this context. .
“Violations of physical and mental integrity”
On appeal, the federal criminal court had however indicated in 2018 that the clashes had presented such an intensity of violence that they were similar to the notion of armed conflict as defined by the Geneva conventions and international case law, obliging the MPC to resume the procedure.
After hearing a total of twenty-four people, the Attorney General filed the indictment on August 28, committing Mr. Nezzar to federal criminal court “for violations of international humanitarian law within the meaning of the Geneva Conventions between 1992 and 1994 in connection with the civil war in Algeria and for crimes against humanity”.
He is suspected of “having at least approved, coordinated and encouraged, knowingly and deliberately, torture and other cruel, inhuman or humiliating acts, violations of physical and mental integrity, arbitrary detentions and convictions as well as executions extrajudicial”.
In particular, the MPC documented eleven states of affairs, which occurred between 1992 and 1994. The civil war, which permanently traumatized Algeria, officially claimed 200,000 lives, including many civilians. “After almost twelve years of tumultuous proceedings, the announcement of a trial brings renewed hope for the victims of the Algerian civil war [1991-2002] to finally obtain justice. Mr. Nezzar will be the highest military official ever tried in the world for such crimes on the basis of universal jurisdiction”, responded TRIAL on Tuesday.
” Dying “
The organization pleads for the opening of the trial as soon as possible, assuring that the former minister would be “dying”. “It would not be conceivable for the victims that their right to obtain justice would now be denied to them”, explains Benoit Meystre, legal adviser at TRIAL International, in a press release. Quoted in this press release, Abdelwahab Boukezouha, one of the five plaintiffs, explains: “I am not fighting only for myself, but for all the victims of the black decade, as well as for the youngest and future generations. »
In Algiers, the Collective of Families of the Disappeared (CFDA) welcomed a “historic legal victory” and announced a rally Wednesday in Algiers “on the occasion of the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances”. “After years of research and fighting to bring this [Nezzar] case to justice, the CFDA congratulates TRIAL International and recognizes the extraordinary commitment of the plaintiffs for nearly twenty-three years,” added the Collective.
According to TRIAL, one victim recently withdrew his complaint following pressure, another was closed in 2023 because the victim, living in Algeria, could no longer be reached, and a third victim died recently.
