Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced the withdrawal of the preliminary draft related to the stripping of the Algerian national for perpetrators of acts affecting state security and national unity, due to the "misunderstanding" that occurred about him, promising what he described as "happy news" regarding the recovery of smuggled money from the country.
Tebboune stated, in a televised interview yesterday evening, Sunday, that "the preliminary draft related to the procedure of stripping the original or acquired Algerian nationality applied to every Algerian who deliberately commits acts outside the national territory that would seriously harm the interests of the state or infringe upon national unity," according to The official Algerian news agency.
The president explained that the decision to withdraw this draft text is due to a misunderstanding that may have major implications and "other interpretations," and added that this measure was "related only to the issue of compromising state security, which we will defend in another way."
Last March, the Algerian government announced that it was preparing a draft law authorizing the removal of citizenship from citizens who commit abroad "acts that seriously harm the interests of the state or harm national unity," or are dealing with a "enemy state", or participate in "terrorist activity." ".
The official news agency said earlier that the preliminary draft of the law "provides for the introduction of a procedure for stripping the Algerian nationality, original or acquired, to be applied to every Algerian who intentionally commits acts outside the national territory that seriously harm the interests of the state or harm national unity."
She added, "This procedure also applies to a person who is active or joins a terrorist organization, or finances or glorifies it," as it applies "to everyone who deals with an enemy state."
This text was likely to raise serious concerns among the Algerian diaspora spread around the world.
And resides in France the largest Algerian community abroad.
Tebboune said in July that more than 6 million Algerians live in France.
Happy news
In another context, the Algerian president said that most of the European Union countries expressed their willingness to assist his country in retrieving the smuggled funds during the era of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1999-2019), promising "good news" in this file in the coming days.
The "Hirak" movement in Algeria resumed its protest marches on February 22 after it was suspended for about a year due to Corona (Anatolia)
In response to a question about the fate of the looted money, Tebboune said that most of the smuggled money, during the previous era, was destined for Europe, without specifying its size.
He added that the process of retrieving these funds is carried out according to complex legal steps, and currently there are corruption files awaiting final judgments for the judiciary to begin the negotiation process on retrieving money and real estate abroad, and he stated that most European Union countries have expressed their willingness to help facilitate the recovery of these funds.
He stressed that the Algerian authorities had initiated contacts to retrieve the smuggled money, and even real estate, and that the ambassadors took over this task, and added that the Algerian ambassador to France was able to retrieve 46 real estate properties.
Tebboune promised that despite the obstacles imposed by the "Corona" pandemic, the coming days will carry "good news for the Algerian people" regarding this file.
There is no official figure for the amount of money smuggled under Bouteflika, who resigned from the presidency on April 2, 2019, under pressure from popular protests against his rule that erupted on February 22 of the same year.
But Abdelkader Bin Quraina, a candidate in the previous presidential elections, said in statements to him that the size of these funds exceeds $ 100 billion.
Memory file
The Algerian president reaffirmed that the defense of the memory file "will not be traded" within the framework of bilateral relations between Algeria and France will not give up.
In the same interview, Tebboune said that the national memory "is something that will not be conceded and will never be traded within the framework of relations between Algeria and France," and stressed that the issue of opening the archive is "an integral part of the national memory."
Tebboune also pointed out that there is an archive "belonging to the Ottoman Empire that France found in Algeria and took it, and it must return it to Algeria," as well as another archive for France, "except that it relates to some throngs and popular uprisings, so it must return it to us as well," according to what I quoted Algerian official news agency.
French President Emmanuel Macron decided earlier to facilitate access to the contents of the secret archives that are more than 50 years old, especially those related to the Algerian war, in accordance with what was recommended by historian Benjamin Stora in a report on the "reconciliation of memory" between the two countries, which he completed at the request of the Elysee.
Macron's announcement came within the framework of the "symbolic actions" promised by the French president for the "reconciliation of memory" between the French and Algerians and quiet relations.
The Algerian authorities welcomed Macron's recent decisions, but they have been calling for years to open the French colonial archives and settle the issue of the missing in the War of Independence, whose number exceeds 2,200, according to Algeria, as well as the French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara.