French army ‘tortured and murdered’ Algerian independence figure Ali Boumendjel, President Macron admits
- France ruled Algeria for more than a hundred years and the independence war from 1954-62 left 1.5 million Algerians dead
- Authorities previously claimed Ali committed suicide in detention, a lie his widow and family members campaigned to see overturned
Macron met four of the grandchildren of Ali Boumendjel and admitted “in the name of France” that the lawyer had been detained, tortured and killed in Algiers on March 23, 1957, his office said on Tuesday.
French authorities had previously claimed that he had committed suicide while in detention, a lie that his widow and other family members had campaigned for years to see overturned.
“Looking our history in the face, acknowledging the truth, will not enable us to heal all of the still open wounds, but it will help to create a path for the future,” the statement from Macron’s office said.
In 2018, he admitted that France had created a “system” that facilitated torture during the war and acknowledged that French mathematician Maurice Audin, a Communist pro-independence activist, was also murdered in Algiers.
