Retired Army General Sues French Newspaper

Former Human Resources Officer at the Ministry of National Defense retired Army General “Ali. G.”, has defied a French newspaper, to prove his alleged meeting with US intelligence officials at the Washington embassy in the French capital Paris, and decided to sue the newspaper and its managing official in front of justice.

The retired Army General strongly denied what was reported about him, and said in a written response issued by the French newspaper on its website (https://mondafrique.com/la-reponse-du-general-ali-ghediri-amondafrique/): stressing to this effect that “The communication with foreign parties is a betrayal of national and military customs,” as he put it.

The French newspaper “Monde Afrique”, owned by the former journalist of “Le Monde”, namely Nicolas Beau, talked about a pseudo gathering of the “General” and a former minister (not disclosed) in the Government of former Premier Abdelmalek Sellal, with US officials at the US Embassy in Paris, while linking this alleged meeting to clear the way for the upcoming political deadlines in Algeria.

The reply of the retired Army General severely lambasted controversial journalist “Nicolas Beau” and accused him of working for shadowy parties.

The French journalist’s article presented the retired General as a close associate of the team, led by Mohamed Mediène, called Tewfik, who was sacked almost three years ago from his post at the head of the DRS intelligence service.

In his stinging reply, the retired Army General told Nicolas Beau: “To read Mondafrique, one is tempted to think that you have mortgaged the principles that we believed to be yours and that you have never ceased to put at the service of noble causes, so much your newspaper has become the spillway of insanities of obscure rectifiers of wrongs…

Sincerely, you deserve better than to behave by subcontracting ignominy to the point of peddling what they dare not say openly, by signing their articles. Maybe you don’t know, sir, but these people are just too cowardly to face. Circumvention is their favourite tactic. In you, they’ve found the right mound. What a shame!

As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Beau, I’m not afraid of confrontation. You wrote it yourself in the columns of this same newspaper on November 25, 2015. It is equally important for you to know that in leaving the military, for the reasons that will remain mine, I have in no way renounced my convictions. They will be the beacon of my life.

And, at the risk of surprising you and those who “intoxicate” you, I teach you that this army has shaped me. In me, the ANP Army instilled self-denial, selflessness, a spirit of sacrifice and, above all, love for the motherland. It also taught me a sense of honor. It’s anchored in me.

All these values, whether you like them or not, are the values that have made us free to say everything out loud and well in front of us, without resorting to third parties; and, all too proudly, to dare to roam in front of any chancellery whatsoever.

In our case, this is nothing more or less than treason in the forms you have described. That is what you accused me of, based on the slander of a deep throat that stinks of cowardice, ignominy and betrayal.

Your way of doing things obviously does you no credit. You have acted with a disconcerting lightness that is not without lifting the veil on the hidden part of what you really are: a malevolent and an enemy of my country, just like those who agitate you! You see, sir, your experience charges you more than it discharges you.
Mr. Nicola Beau. I challenge you to give evidence of what you have advanced against me. Have the nobility of soul and courage, without which one ceases to be Man, to recognize that you are mistaken and that you have been manipulated! Dare! I challenge you once again! Otherwise, I reserve the right to sue you for slander”.

It should also be noted that Mondeafrique’s articles, which are often based on anonymous sources, are often controversial and have already dealt with the origin of real estate properties owned by the former Secretary-General of the National Liberation Front, Ammar Saadani, in Paris, a case that was moved into the corridors of French justice.

The latter then fined the newspaper manager Nicolas Beau, for not providing evidence to prove the authenticity of what he’d published.