Judge Trévidic requests French investigators to analyze murdered Tibhirine Monks’ skulls

French judge Marc Trévidic who is entrusted with following up on the investigation into the assassination of the Tibhirine Trappist Monks way back in 1996, has requested a new judicial ruling whereby French investigators will be in charge of analyzing the samples of the murdered monks’ skulls in specialized French laboratories.

Trévidic told the newspaper “Le Monde” that such the analysis of the remains would be carried out in conjunction with an Algerian legal expert but under French forensic expertise adding that such an operation should take place as early as possible because the skulls’ samples could badly deteriorate due to the wear of time.

This comes after the judge had already expressed dismay at the purported refusal by Algeria to deliver the samples to France, and requested the intervention of the French Government with the Algerian authorities to enable him to obtain the samples for in-depth DNA analysis, according to the newspaper.

Marc Trévidic and two other French officials stayed in Algeria for one week last month and took part in the exhumation and forensic examination of the monks’ heads, which are buried at their monastery in Tibhirine, in the region of Médéa, 80km south of the capital.

Christian de Cherge, Luc Dochier, Paul Favre Miville, Michel Fleury, Christophe Lebreton, Bruno Lemarchand and Célestin Ringeard were abducted in March 1996 and their severed heads were found several weeks later. The rest of their bodies is still missing.

The Algerian authorities have blamed the atrocity on the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), a terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and sought a ransom. Later, GIA also said it had carried out the assassination of the Trappist Monks

Trévidic and his colleague, Judge Nathalie Poux, have been seeking permission to investigate the case in Algeria for three years. Last November, the country granted Trévidic a visa for the first time and he travelled to Algiers and then to the Tibhirine Monastery in Médéa province along with a delegation of French forensic and legal experts to negotiate the conditions for a post-mortem examination of the victims’ remains.