French intelligence office to be heard in Tibherine Monks’ murder inquiry

According to an article posted online by the French magazine “Valeurs Actuelles”, several high-ranking former French intelligence officers will be questioned by an Algerian judge with the aim of shedding all the light on the murky assassination of the Tibherine Trappist monks in the central province of Médéa way back in 1996.

Algerian justice Minister Tayeb Louh said that the Algerian judge in charge of the case will embark on a tour of France on October 21^st 2014 to carry through the ongoing investigation.

He also indicated that several important personalities linked to the French intelligence services would be heard by the Algerian examining magistrate as part of efforts to unravel all the intricacies surrounding this much-publicized affair.

A French legal investigator is for his part expected shortly n Algiers as part of the inquiry into the  murder of the seven French monks. Anti-terrorism judge Marc Trévidic has been trying to take his inquiry to Algeria for two years.

 The visit, which Algiers finally agreed to allow last month, is intended to be the first of many and is meant to set the guidelines for more to come, sources say.

Investigators want to perform an autopsy on the heads of the seven Cistercian monks, which were found by the side of a road two months after they had been kidnapped from their isolated monastery at Tibéhrine in central Algeria in March 1996, and to interview witnesses.

Djamel Zitouni, the former chieftain of the (GIA) terrorist group then claimed responsibility for both the kidnapping and the hideous murders.