The Algerian lawyer and nationalist leader, whose assassination Emmanuel Macron has just acknowledged by the French army in 1957, was the face of the thousands of men who disappeared during the Battle of Algiers.
Other surveys to provide answers to the families of the disappeared are promised by France.
"To look history in the face, to recognize the truth of the facts, will not make it possible to close wounds which are still open, but will help to pave the way for the future", affirms the Elysee in a press release, published Tuesday evening.
Almost sixty years after the end of the Algerian war, Emmanuel Macron admitted that the lawyer Ali Boumendjel had indeed been tortured and murdered by the French Army in 1957. Other investigations to give answers "to the families of the missing "will follow, according to the president.
A lawyer and nationalist leader
Ali Boumendjel is the face of the thousands of men who disappeared during the Battle of Algiers.
A time of massive raids, during which French soldiers and separatists were caught in a murderous spiral.
At the time of his death, the man was 38 years old.
He is a nationalist leader, lawyer, who defends activists of the National Liberation Front (FLN).
President @EmmanuelMacron acknowledged, on behalf of France, the torture and assassination of Ali Boumendjel, lawyer and political leader of Algerian nationalism, during the Algerian war.https: //t.co/I7y5GLHgbY
- Elysee (@Elysee) March 3, 2021
The thirty-something disturbs.
He was arrested at his office in Algiers by French paratroopers, tortured, and executed a month later.
"He is precipitated from the top of a terrace", retraces at the microphone of Europe 1 Malika Rahal, historian and specialist in Algeria.
"The reason for this staging is that Ali Boumendjel was too well known and that it was not possible to make him disappear as we did with other detainees," she explains.
A "staged" death
"This staging made it possible to return a body to the family, to put it down to an accident and therefore to clear the assassination", continues the specialist.
However, the activist's family never doubted the fate that had been reserved for him.
In 2000, the crime was first recognized by General Paul Aussaresses.
It is now by the French state.
>> ANALYSIS
- The Algerian war is "the last great taboo in the history of our country"
This gesture of appeasement was recommended by historian Benjamin Stora in his report on colonization, submitted in January to Emmanuel Macron.
"It will not be an isolated act", promises the head of state, who excludes, on the other hand, any excuse or repentance for the actions of France during the war in Algeria.