The Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Monday September 4 that it had opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the death of two holidaymakers, including a Franco-Moroccan, killed by gunfire attributed to Algerian coast guards. This investigation, pending the Moroccan investigation, was opened for intentional homicide and entrusted to the criminal brigade of the Paris judicial police, said the prosecution. In particular, it must provide a legal framework for collecting information.
For their part, the lawyers for the families of the two victims announced on Sunday the filing of a complaint in Paris for “aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, hijacking of a ship and failure to assist a person in danger”. It should be filed on Tuesday, one of the lawyers Me Hakim Chergui told Agence France-Presse.
According to the testimony of a 33-year-old Franco-Moroccan, Mohamed Kissi, four vacationers, including himself, got lost at sea during a jet-ski trip on August 29. Leaving from the beach of Saidia (north-eastern Morocco), on the border with Algeria, they were joined by an Algerian coastguard boat, which fired on them, he said.
A 29-year-old Franco-Moroccan merchant
His brother Bilal Kissi, a 29-year-old Franco-Moroccan trader and father of two young children, and his cousin Abdelali Mechouar (or Mchiouer), a 40-year-old trader living in France and father of a 5-year-old child, were killed. A friend, Smaïl Snabé, Franco-Moroccan, was arrested by the Algerian coastguards. Mohamed Kissi was rescued by the Moroccan navy.
The prosecution of Oujda, a city in northeastern Morocco bordering Algeria, ordered the next day the opening of an investigation to determine the circumstances “of a violent incident at sea”, according to a judicial source at the Moroccan agency MAP.
On Sunday, the Algerian Ministry of Defense explained that the coastguards had intercepted “three jet skis having smuggled across our territorial waters”. Despite “a sound warning” and verbal summons, “the defendants refused to comply and fled by performing dangerous maneuvers”, according to the ministry.
After several “warning shots”, “shots were fired forcing one of the jet skis to come to a stop, while the other two fled”, added the ministry, recalling the “increased activity of drug gangs and organized crime” in this border area.
