- The federal prosecutor’s office in Bellinzona has brought charges against former Algerian defense minister Khaled Nezzar.
- Nezzar is accused of crimes against humanity.
- The federal prosecutor’s office had been investigating for years and had meanwhile dropped the case against Nezzar.
The crimes the minister is accused of are related to the civil war in Algeria between the government and Islamists in the 1990s, according to the federal prosecutor. In particular, Nezzar is said to have violated the international law of war in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and committed crimes against humanity. Nezzar had led the military junta at the beginning of the war.
Legend:
Former Algerian Defense Minister Khaled Nezzar in 2002.
Keystone/AMEL PAIN
According to the indictment, he knowingly and willingly at least approved, coordinated and promoted torture and “other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”, violations of physical and mental integrity, arbitrary detentions and convictions and executions. His plan of action was aimed at “eradicating the Islamist opposition”.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating for years
The federal prosecutor documented eleven facts, each with several allegations that occurred between 1992 and 1994. According to the plaintiff, she will submit her applications during the main hearing before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. The accused is presumed innocent until the final judgment.
The extensive investigations by the federal prosecutor’s office lasted for years. In February 2022, the agency announced that it had conducted the final interrogation with Nezzar. A total of 24 people were heard.
War claimed up to 200,000 lives
Information on the case was released by the Geneva-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Trial International, which fights against impunity for war crimes. According to various public sources, up to 200,000 people were killed and around 1.5 million people were driven from their homes during the civil war between 1992 and 1999, also known as “décennie noire”. Another 20,000 people are said to have disappeared.
Nezzar’s lawyers have repeatedly stressed in the past that the former defense secretary has always denied the crimes he was accused of between January 1992 and January 1994. The plaintiffs would rely on unverifiable sources on the Internet. Nezzar is now also seen as an accomplice and no longer as a perpetrator.
Punishable regardless of the crime scene
In 2017, the federal prosecutor’s office discontinued the proceedings on the grounds that there had been no armed conflict in Algeria in the early 1990s, whereupon the plaintiffs filed a complaint against the dismissal order with the Federal Criminal Court. Finally, in 2018, the Federal Criminal Court announced its decision to overturn the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office’s closure of the proceedings, so that they had to resume the investigation.
Trial International called the indictment Tuesday “a historic step in the fight against impunity for crimes committed during the ‘Black Decade’.” Nezzar will be the third defendant to appear before the federal criminal court to answer for his involvement in international crimes.