Mohamed Chelali, an Algerian who saved French President Chirac from death

French’s memory is weak when it is about Algerian good achievements but it becomes a computer with a memory card when something wrong happened. On France’s July 14th National Day in 2002, the country would be the “century scandal” if its former president Jacques Chirac did not escape an assassination attempt in Paris.

That happened when France’s Nazis came close to Chirac and tried to shoot him. He was saved by a 46-year-old Algerian man named Mohamed Chelali.

Jacques owes his life to Mohamed who saved him from real death when he paralyzed the criminal’s hand.

Chelali who comes from the province of Biskra (south of Algeria) was an immigrant to Canada. He stopped in Paris for one day to come back home for summer holidays.

He had always been prosecuted in France although he was a successful man. He passed the Baccalureate exam in Biskra then moved to the University of Boumerdes to become an oil engineer. He moved to Paris where he married his cousin who worked there.

The prosecution started when he tried to establish a company to bury Muslim dead people in a French town. He travelled to Montreal where life seemed the same for him.

He told Echorouk he decided to go to Frankfurt and worked with Lebanese and people from the Gulf.

In 2002’s summer holidays, he went to Paris before going to Algeria to visit family. He was curious to attend the French celebrations. His courage made him the “president’s saver.” Newspapers including Charlie Hebdo rushed to interview him. Before that, France kicked him out accusing him of economic spying