Kateb Family Demands Transfer of Body Of Its Son Kept In French Hospital

The Kateb family residing in the city of Batna (eastern Algeria) has demanded the intervention of the Algerian authorities, headed by the Foreign Ministry’s services to intervene urgently to recover the body of its son “Tewfik” from the morgue of the Marseille Hospital in southern France, in accordance with the law on transferring the bodies of Algerian nationals as guaranteed by the National Insurance Fund.

The young man, Tewfik, married and father of a child, died on 18 April in his room of a natural death, as confirmed by the primary and final French forensic reports, but his deportation to his country Algeria was delayed for reasons unknown to the family who was asked to pay for custody expenses in the morgue estimated at 50 million centimes during the two and a half months of his stay in the Marseille hospital.

The family sent letters and complaints to the relevant parties in Algeria and France to lift the detention of the body and bring him back to his country to avoid a possible incineration in case the problem is not resolved in the near future.

However, the grievous Kateb family has not as yet received the appropriate response, prompting it to demand the implementation of the law on the transfer of bodies, which was officially ratified by Parliament in the 2014 session.