The general died in Algiers on Friday at the age of 86. His trial for crimes against humanity during the Algerian civil war was scheduled to take place in Bellinzona in the summer of 2024.
Former Algerian Defense Minister Khaled Nezzar, prosecuted by Swiss justice for crimes against humanity, died Friday in Algiers at the age of 86, public television announced. A retired general, he was suspected of approving and coordinating torture during Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s.
At the end of August, Swiss justice announced his indictment, arguing that he had “placed trusted people in key positions and knowingly and deliberately created structures aimed at exterminating the Islamist opposition”.
“The independence of justice does not justify irresponsibility, nor that a judicial system, whatever it may be, arrogates to itself the absolute right to judge the policies of a sovereign and independent State,” reacted the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A dark decade that left some 200,000 dead
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune paid tribute on Friday to “one of the most eminent military figures” who devoted his life “to the service of the nation”, in a message of condolences to his family.
Algeria was the scene of a civil war from 1992 to 2002 after the military interrupted a legislative electoral process that promised victory to the Islamists of the banned Islamic Salvation Front. This dark decade left some 200,000 dead, according to official estimates.
Khaled Nezzar was arrested in Geneva in October 2011, while he was residing in Switzerland, following a complaint filed by the Swiss NGO TRIAL International, before being released. He had since left Switzerland.
