New book Documents Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Torture Of Algerians

A new book by the French historian specializing in the Franco-Algerian war, Fabrice Riceputi, reveals a new chapter in the crimes of torture committed by the far-right extremist and founder of the French National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, during his work as a member of the paratrooper division of the French occupation army during the Liberation Revolution.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, while he was a member of the French Parliament, volunteered with the paratroopers in 1956 at the capital level to defend “French Algeria” against the Algerian people who decided to take up arms against the French occupation, under the banner of the National Liberation Front and Army, and there The leader of the French far right committed the most horrific crimes of torture against Algerian activists.
The book will be published on Friday, January 19, by Dar Al-Barzakh, and it includes documents and historical documents condemning Jean-Marie Le Pen for crimes of torture, after the man tried to evade these charges. The importance of this book lies in the fact that it came after he tried to exonerate himself and proceeded to file a complaint against him. He sued his accusers for defamation and lost.
Fabrice Riceputi is a historian and associate researcher at the Luton Prison Institute. Historian Malika Rahal is also involved in the research project “A Thousand Others” on disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions during the “Battle of Algiers” in the second half of the 1950s. This was during the height of the liberation revolution against the French occupying army.
According to the publisher’s introduction, “Fabrice Riceputi has compiled for the first time a particularly painful but hitherto scattered historical file. Drawing on the latest achievements in historical research, he examines the credibility of the sources that accuse him (Jean-Marie Le Pen), as well as those that… It tries to exonerate him and, despite the silence and concealment, it reconstructs, as far as possible, the history of the presence of this lieutenant who is not quite like the others in Algeria.
It also highlights the importance of the often neglected colonial ideological roots of the political movement that exists today at the gates of “power” in France, and the reference is clear here to the party founded by this right-wing extremist, which he lost to the influence of his daughter Marine Le Pen.
Le Pen has been the focus of controversy among French historians over the past two decades for his involvement in the torture of Algerians during the French occupation of Algeria. Among those who defended him was the historian Benjamin Stora, who claimed that “Le Pen left Algeria at the beginning of the Battle of Algiers”. This did not go unnoticed by historians and specialists, because Le Pen himself admitted in 1962 that he had tortured Algerians, saying: “I have nothing to hide. I was tortured because I had to be.”
The historian Riceputi responded at the time to what Stora said: “Until proven otherwise, Le Pen was involved in torture. This is confirmed by the archives and testimonies in his case. An intolerable controversy.”
Riceputi also retweeted a tweet by historian Andre Luiz, who said: “In this reference book on the Algerian war, the entry dedicated to Jean-Marie Le Pen (by Alain Ruscio) is clear about his activities as a torturer. It is a useful contrast to Benjamin Stora’s major errors in the audio documentary.