For almost three months, French lawyer Hakim Chergui has been struggling to recover the remains of Abdelali Mchiouer, a Moroccan who is believed to be lying in a morgue in Algeria. On August 29, this 40-year-old trader, based in the Paris region and father of five children, was killed by gunfire attributed to an Algerian coast guard unit while he was sailing on a water scooter in the company of three relatives .
That day, Bilal Kissi, a 28-year-old Franco-Moroccan, also perished at sea; his brother, Mohamed Kissi, 33, was able to escape; as for the fourth individual, Ismaël Snabi, also Franco-Moroccan, he was arrested by the coast guard, then sentenced to six months in prison by the Algerian courts for “illegal entry” into the territory.
It was around 8 p.m. when the four men reportedly got lost while trying to return to the marina in Saïdia, a town in northeastern Morocco, bordering Algeria. “We made a sort of convoy [of three jet-skis], Ismaël in front, me just behind and Bilal with Abdelali in last position,” Mohamed Kissi told French police on October 2, according to the hearing report. that Le Monde was able to consult.
“I didn’t see the rocks.”
“As we were afraid of breaking down, we took it slowly,” remembers the Franco-Moroccan. At sea, the border between the two countries is marked “a few dozen meters by rocks” which he and his friends use as a “landmark” to return to the marina. “With the sunset and night beginning to fall, I didn’t see the rocks,” he assures. It should be noted that the mist had also appeared in the evening and obstructed visibility. »
Without knowing it, the convoy is heading towards Algeria. It is then that “a black Zodiac” arrives, “rushes” on the scooter of Ismaël Snabi and that of Bilal Kissi accompanied by Abdelali Mchiouer before “damp[ing]” them, placing itself between the two machines and to communicate with them in Arabic. The four men left shortly after, heading towards Morocco. “Could the border guards have taken our departure as a refusal to comply, frankly, I don’t think so. For me, they let us go, nothing more,” assures Mohamed Kissi.
“But as soon as I left, I heard shots,” continues the Franco-Moroccan, who says he saw his brother and Abdelali Mchiouer fall into the water. “The border guards had probably left with Ishmael. I was broken down, I was drifting towards Algeria and I preferred to jump into the water. I was holding the jet ski with one hand, and with the other, I was trying to swim,” he says. “About an hour and a half later,” he was rescued by the Moroccan navy.
The next day, the body of Bilal Kissi, father of two young children and also a trader in the Paris region, was found by a Moroccan fisherman. His autopsy reportedly revealed five bullet holes: three in the back, two in the legs. “He would have bled to death in the water,” explains Hakim Chergui, one of the families’ two lawyers. The public prosecutor’s office in Oujda, a Moroccan town bordering Algeria, has opened an investigation to determine the conditions of his death. Just like the Paris prosecutor’s office, which was seized after a complaint from the Kissi family for “assassination, attempted assassination, hijacking of a ship and failure to assist a person in danger”.
“Warning shots”
On the Algerian side, the Ministry of Defense gave its version of the facts in a press release dated September 3. According to the institution, “at 7:47 p.m., three jet skis illegally crossed our territorial waters. After issuing an audible warning and ordering them to stop several times, the defendants refused to comply and fled, carrying out dangerous maneuvers. “Given that this border maritime region is experiencing increased activity by drug trafficking gangs and organized crime,” the coast guard “carried out warning shots. After several attempts, shots were fired, forcing one of the jet skis to stop, while the other two fled.
On August 30, the day after the tragedy, the Algerian coast guard recovered a man “with a bullet hole from a firearm,” who was transferred to a morgue in Tlemcen. It could be Abdelali Mchiouer. “Since then, we have had no news from the Algerian authorities. It’s omerta, regrets Me Chergui. I knock on all the doors and windows. I don’t know who to turn to. » Tuesday, November 14, the lawyer explains that he met the vice-consul of Algeria in Casablanca to once again plead the cause of the family who would like to bury their deceased.
This incident comes as tensions between Morocco and Algeria are increasingly high. For two years, Algiers has severed diplomatic relations with Rabat, accusing the Moroccan authorities of “hostile acts”. However, the Moroccan authorities have not made this tragedy a state affair, contenting themselves with declaring that it “falls within the jurisdiction of the judiciary”.
To advance the case, the lawyers contacted the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on September 25 to conduct an investigation. “If the vacationers were Spanish, none of this would have happened,” said Mr. Hakim Chergui.
