This is an exceptional document published by the Algerian journalist Farid Alilat, expelled from his own country a year ago. In A state crime (Plon), this experienced investigator, already the author of a very informed biography of Bouteflika, made shattering revelations on the assassination of Krim Belkacem, in October 1970, in Chamber 1414 of the Intercontinental hotel in Frankfurt. Opposing the regime, he embodied a democratic and liberal Algeria. Farid Alilat relies on the unpublished archives of the German police and justice to break the omerta around this case that the Algerian hierarchs have managed to suffocate until today. An edifying book.
L’Express: You were born in independent Algeria. What did Krim Belkacem represent for you?
Farid Alilat: Like many Algerians, Krim Belkacem symbolizes the fight against colonialism, the sacrifice for an independent Algeria, a democratic, plural and multicultural republic. Krim Belkacem like Mohamed Boudiaf, Larbi Ben M’hidi or Hocine Aït Ahmed are icons of this revolution which put an end to a hundred and thirty-two years of French presence in Algeria. In textbooks, in the official national account, little teaching these men raised to the rank of untouchable myths.
What was the most widespread thesis in Algeria on his death?
According to the official thesis, Krim Belkacem died murdered in Germany. She stops here, this thesis. It is not said how he was killed, by whom, for what reasons, even less we designate the sponsors (s). There has never been an investigation in Algeria to make the truth about this state crime. Some believe that he was killed by the formidable military security, others that he was liquidated by President Houari Boumediene when some believe that he has been the subject of a mafia settling of accounts. The fact remains that the Algerians were held in the secret of this political crime, including the own family of Krim Belkacem.
Who was he?
Son of a notable Kabylia, he took the maquis in 1947 to oppose the colonial order. At 25, he already directed a few hundred fighters in the Kabylia massifs. Founding member of the FLN, he is one of the nine “son of All Saints’ Day” who sparked the 1954 insurrection. He was Minister of the Armed Forces, of the Interior, Head of Diplomacy, Vice-President of the GPRA [NDLR : Gouvernement provisoire de la République algérienne]head of the delegation who negotiated the Evian agreements and signatory of these March 1962 agreements. As such, and for other reasons, it was legitimate to play a major role in independent Algeria and claim to lead the country. Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumediene having taken power by force and arms to establish a socialist dictatorship, Krim Belkacem has become an opponent, therefore an adversary, an enemy to liquidate.
He was the main Algerian negotiator of the Evian agreements. Without him, would these have been possible?
We cannot redo the past, but its career in the nationalist movement, its charisma, its authority, its temperament, its ambition as well as its weight within the leaders of the FLN weighed on the outcome of the negotiations. It should not be forgotten that Krim Belkacem has been received by many world leaders in his capacity as head of GPRA diplomacy. This also weighed on his designation as head of the FLN delegation in these talks.
What is up to him in these agreements?
Negotiations that led to the signing of the Evian agreements were remarkable collective work, both political leaders, diplomats or soldiers and intelligence services. One cannot attribute to him alone or another the paternity of these agreements. But, as I pointed out, the weight of Krim Belkacem weighed on the outcome of talks. We can say that it was the catalyst and, of course, the only Algerian to initial the 93 pages of these famous agreements.
After independence, he found himself in opposition to Ben Bella and then in Boumediene. Is it only for ideological reasons or for questions from anyone?
All three fed a legitimate ambition to conquer power. Ben Bella went to Boumediene long before independence to take power. He also arrived in September 1962 before the border army of Boumediene. Ambitious, he was waiting for his time to overthrow Ben Bella and take what he considered it back to him. This is what he did with the coup d’etat of June 19, 1965. Krim Belkacem entered the opposition from independence by becoming a deputy in 1962, before resigning in 1963. From 1967, he was forced to exile to escape prison and settled in frontal opposition. His project, his ambition was to overthrow the Boumediene regime to establish a democratic state.
With him, it is the dream of a democratic and liberal Algeria that has evaporated, you say. What was his political philosophy really?
Ben Bella as Boumediene set up a socialist regime, they abolished pluralism, prohibited the press while relying on the political police to scare, terrorize and silence the opponents. It is remarkable to note that four of the men who sparked the insurrection, Boudiaf, Belkacem, Khider and Aït Ahmed were forced to exile. Two were murdered.
Krim Belkacem was liberal, not at all focused on socialist or Marxist, anti-Panarabist, Republican ideas. Quite the opposite of Ben Bella and Boumediene. I suppose that being Kabyle did not help things as the two presidents fed a certain aversion, at least of hostility, with regard to the Kabyles.
In forced exile from 1967, what becomes of?
In August 1967, he leaned Algeria for Morocco where he installed his family. He travels in Europe and Asia where he has many leaders and dignitaries. In October 1967, he created his MDRA party [NDLR : Mouvement pour la défense de la révolution algérienne]whose main project is to end the Boumediene regime. In fact, it becomes a threat, so much so that the power in Algiers will do everything to silence it and ultimately eliminate it. It is an understatement to say that the Algerian government has multiplied the pressures, threats and blackmail on the French and Swiss governments to silence these opponents of which Krim Belkacem was the figurehead.
What was the generator of your investigation? What put you on the track of the German archives?
This is an icon of the murderous revolution in Germany without knowing the whole truth about this abject and unpunished crime. So I wanted to investigate to shed light, elucidate this enigma and break this taboo which has lasted for fifty-five years. I knew that these German archives existed, but I did not know what they contained and where they were. So I did an investigation work to locate and recover them. 1,440 pages of documents have never been made public.
Your investigations designate an alleged sponsor, Ahmed Draïa, boss of the police at the time. What do you think is the mobile of “state crime”?
In a state crime, there is never a written order, formal evidence or an irrefutable conviction which designates the principal (s). In the case of Krim Belkacem, crime may have been ordered by Boumediene. Everything designates it as the authorizing officer. It was he who had him sentenced to death in 1969 by the revolutionary court of Oran. Boumediene knew the commando chief very well, Hamid Aït Mesbah. Nothing could be done without the downstream of Boumediene, master of the country. Even less when it comes to assassinating a former leader of the Revolution. At the same time, Boumediene was in very advanced negotiations with Belkacem so that he returned to Algeria in exchange for guarantees. These negotiations had even led to a verbal agreement. But if Boumediene did not formally ordered this assassination, he blessed it, covered it and protected its sponsor and authors.
This is a crime in crime. As for Ahmed Draïa, he first had revenge to take on Krim Belkacem, who had him sentenced in 1959 to two years in prison in the famous “colonels conspiracy”. It was him the prosecutor who requested the death penalty against Krim in 1969. It was also who confiscated the villa of Krim to entrust it to a Cacique du FLN. Draïa was an interlope type, a hard, border limit, which even Boumediene was wary. He had a lot of reasons why Belkacem did not come back to settle in Algeria where he could have to occupy responsibilities. Boumediene affirms on her agony that the mobile of the crime is financial. We did not assassin a simple citizen, but an opponent in exile and one of the figures of the struggle for independence. The crime will forever remain a state crime as it has been prepared and ordered at the top of the State and executed by agents of the special services sent from Algiers. To date, it is covered by the conspiracy of silence.
Would this assassination have a link with the conditions laid down by Krim Belkacem to return to Algeria in 1971?
I do not decide on the sponsor as long as I do not have the document or formal proof which designates it, but it is very likely that it is linked to these negotiations between Belkacem and Boumediene. But even if it would be the case, Boumediene covered the crime authorizing officer as well as the performers.
Why was his body repatriated until 1984, after the death of Boumediene?
Boumediene alive, there could be no truth about the death of Krim. The latter’s family refused that his body will be repatriated to Algeria and the King of Morocco, on pressure from Boumediene, did not access Krim’s family to bury him in Morocco. He was therefore buried in Germany. In 1984, President Chadli decided to rehabilitate Krim by repatriating his body without lifting the veil on this assassination.
To read you, the history of Algerian power since independence resembles an endless clan struggle. Does this still continue today?
The configuration of power as well as the men who exercise it and embody it has changed over the decades. Today’s power does not look like that embodied for twenty years by Bouteflika, who differentiated himself from his predecessors. The nature of the diets has changed. Until 1989, we were in a socialist regime, with a single party. This is no longer the case since the implementation of pluralism. There are always clans or lobbies within the army, services, in the business world, but they are not likely to reverse power. In 2019, it was the Algerians who went out in the street to peacefully overthrow the Bouteflika regime.
Is this type of assassinations targeted by opponents outside of Algeria a revolted practice?
We try to muzzle opponents, intimidate or dirty them, condemn them to heavy sorrows or claim their extradition. But the physical elimination of opponents in exile is over.
You were “expelled” from Algeria, your country, in April 2024. You are not French! What is your situation today?
I am forbidden to stay in my country by an arbitrary, illegal, unconstitutional and without any reason. Resident in France since 2004, I have no other nationality. A year after my expulsion, my name is still relieved in the airports and ports of Algeria without any reason, without any explanation, without any justification and without any decision of a judicial authority.
.