The ongoing crisis between France and Algeria has taken a new turn with the request made by Algiers for 12 members of the French embassy staff to leave Algiers within 48 hours.
While the minister for foreign affairs Jean-Noël Barrot was in Algiers on April, 6th, to try to maintain dialogue with the Algerian government in the context of a serious diplomatic crisis, Algeria on Sunday, April 13th, announced its intention to expel 12 people employed by the ministry of the interior from Algeria within 48 hours.
This is a retaliatory measure by the Algerian authorities following the indictment in France on Friday, April 11th, of three men suspected of being agents of the Algerian government and of having intervened just a year ago on French soil to kidnap a certain Amir DZ.
These are serious charges and testify to the casualness and sense of impunity with which the Algerian government behaves in France, even when dealing with its own affairs.
At the end of April 2024, the suspects intervened to kidnap and detain Amir Boukhors, known on social media under the pseudonym Amir DZ, one of the identified voices of opposition to President Tebboune’s regime. The influencer had already been the target of two serious attacks, one in 2022 and another a few days before his abduction.
The three men have been placed in pre-trial detention by the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office. They are being prosecuted for “arrest, abduction, unlawful confinement or arbitrary detention in connection with a terrorist enterprise,” as well as for “participation in a terrorist criminal association with a view to preparing a crime.” A few months ago, even before the arrest of the three main players in the drama, an employee of the Ministry of the Economy was also indicted for having passed on confidential information about Amir Boukhors to an Algerian national working at the Algerian consulate in Créteil. He has since been held in custody.
According to Amir DZ’s lawyer, one of the kidnappers holds a service passport from an Algerian consular representation, which fuels the suspicion that they acted not on their own initiative, but on the orders of the Algerian government. “A foreign power, Algeria, did not hesitate to carry out violent action on French soil through intimidation and terror likely to endanger life,” said the lawyer, interviewed by France info.
In this case, Algeria is acting in flagrant disregard of international law, violating the sovereignty of France. The Algerian influencer has been in France since 2016. He was granted political asylum in 2023. Algiers has issued nine international arrest warrants against him, accusing him of fraud and terrorist offences. The French courts have refused his extradition.
After communicating on the expulsion of the French agents, Algiers condemned the incarceration of the consular agent, denouncing the “rotten and far-fetched” arguments of the French authorities and an “unacceptable judicial cabal.”
Barrot urged the Algerian government to suspend these deportations on the grounds that they have no connection with the ongoing legal proceedings. In the absence of a positive response, France will respond in kind, although the possible content of this response is not yet known. His visit to Algeria will have been completely pointless, according to critics of Emmanuel Macron’s foreign minister, who is often criticised for his immaturity and inefficiency. In an interview with Le Figaro, Xavier Driencourt, the former French ambassador to Algiers, believes that in the current crisis, “overall, the Algerians are winning.”
