Algerian “Dirty War” General May Face Swiss Trial

Algeria’s ex-military chief Khaled Nezzar very likely will be prosecuted on war crimes charges for his role in the bloody civil conflict of the 1990s, a Swiss legal body said on Tuesday.

In a judgment released earlier in the day, Switzerland’s top criminal court rejected claims from Nezzar that he could not be tried outside his home country for offences allegedly committed when he was defence minister there from 1990-1993.

“This is an historic judgment which means he can be tried here for what he did,” Philip Grant, director of the Geneva-based TRIAL, an organisation that seeks to assure that war crimes suspects are brought to trial, told Reuters.

“It may take some time for it to happen, but the way is now open.”

The general, who had become defence minister in 1990, was among leaders of a coup that overthrew then-president Chadli Benjadid in 1991 after the Islamic Salvation Front (ISF) emerged as victor in parliamentary elections.

The vote was declared void and in the ensuing violence, dubbed the “dirty war” which lasted until 1999, some 200,000 people died, mainly civilians massacred by groups the military said were Islamist fighters.

Nezzar, believed to still wield considerable influence in Algiers, was arrested in Geneva last October on a complaint filed by TRIAL after his familiar burly, mustachioed figure was spotted in the street, apparently on a visit to a bank

Two Algerian citizens, who have been granted political asylum in Switzerland, backed the complaint, telling Swiss investigators that they had been tortured and abused by soldiers while he held the defence post, Grant said.

Reuters