Algeria President Boumediene ate poison in plane, says doctor

Russian doctor who was in charge of looking after Algeria’s late President Houari Boumediene said his medical team were under pressure in 1978 as Soviet doctors were smuggled through subways fearing of anger among Algerians.

The medical team who came to Algeria to continue treating President Boumediene were threatened to death if they failed to heal him, the doctor told a TV channel.

As doctors lost hope in healing Boumediene, his wife Anissa asked to bring him back to Algeria. He was accompanied by Russian doctors, he added.

“Yet, there were rumors saying if Boumediene dies, the Soviet doctors will not go out from Algeria safe,” he said.

“We were told that we were in danger while Algerians wanted to bring more doctors from the world.”

The doctor said he told the Russian security forces the doctors in Algeria are the best ones in the Soviet Union and must be protected.

He added that the Russian doctors were smuggled through subways fearing of Algerians if their president died.

“On the day of Boumediene’s death, an Algerian man accompanied the doctors through subways. They went into cars and left.”

Speaking about Boumediene’s illness, the doctor said he might be poisoned as some nations possessed a virus which may have been behind the president’s death.

He added that Boumediene ate food in the plane from Damascus after he had attended a conference in Syria. He had immediately health troubles.