Tibehrine Monks' Assassination: Algeria did not authorize a French investigation on its soil, FM says

Foreign Affairs Ministry, refuted the license of Algerian authorities for the French judge Mark Trevidik, to enter Algeria next March or otherwise, as stated by the French media, for what he called an investigation into the assassination of seven monks in Tibehrine.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ammar Blaney, told Echorouk on Sunday, that statements of the French judge “It is not true at all” and that Algeria did not give him the green light to visit the region, in order to investigate, adding that “the case is still under study”.

“The request of further investigation in Algeria has nearly a year, no date or an agreed agenda for my visit to Algeria in March or other was made for the investigation into the assassination of seven monks in Tibehrine in 1996”, he added.
The spokesman for the Algerian Foreign Ministry, asserted in response to the comments by the French judge, that there is no list of persons, who are linked to the file, adding that what was said is “incorrect and baseless”, and that the judicial authorities did not comply and did not specify any date with its French counterpart about what us known the file of Tibehrine monks.

Algeria’s response, came immediately after the information that was reported by the channel France 24, says that the Algerian authorities gave the green light to the competent judge in the fight against terrorism, Mark Trevidik, in order to visit Algeria in March 2013, to continue his investigations into the assassination of Tibehrine monks which he oversees.

There were frequent statements hours after the civil defense lawyer in the case of Tibehrine monks sent a letter to the French President Francois Holland, ahead of his visit to Algeria, next Wednesday and Thursday, calling on him to pressurize Algeria in order to push it for cooperation with the French investigators in charge of the issue of the monks, and said Holland in Brussels that he will talk about all the files with his Algerian counterpart.

The former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said as a reaction to the debate that was sparked by French parties then, on what it called “highlighting the truth,” and said that he must raise the military secret on all the documents relating to the assassination of the monks, as the judge since that statement was able to view hundreds of documents at the level of the French Defense and Foreign Ministries.

Days before Holland’s visit to Algeria, French circles return to digging in the file of Tibehrine Monks, and this was read by observers as an attempt to extort Algeria, and push it not to put the requirement to recognize crimes of colonialism on the official table, which was considered by Farouk Ksentini, head of the Advisory body of promoting and protecting human rights, as a process which aimed at jamming the French president’s visit, saying that Algeria did not allow the French judge to visit the country for investigation, and that the Algerian justice closed the file.

The seven monk were living in the monastery of Tibehrine in the high mountains of Medea, and were kidnapped one night on March 1996 by a terrorist organization called “Group of Islamic Army ” (GIA) which adopted the kidnapping, and this was also confirmed by several confessions of repentant terrorists and escorts of the monks, whose testimonies were quoted by the French media.