France has admitted responsibility for the murder of a prominent Algerian nationalist more than six decades ago.
Ali Boumendjel was arrested during the Algerian War of Independence in 1957, and his death shortly after was covered-up as a suicide.
President Emmanuel Macron disclosed in a meeting with Boumendjel’s grandchildren on Tuesday that he was tortured and murdered by the French army more than 60 years ago.
Macron revealed that, “he did not commit suicide. He was tortured and then killed.”
Boumendjel, a 37-year-old Lawyer and Nationalist, was active in the campaign against French colonial rule. He was detained during the Battle of Algiers and placed in solitary confinement by French troops.
The activist was then killed and thrown from the sixth-floor of a building in an effort to front his death as a suicide.
Algeria gained independence from France in 1962 after a bloody seven-year war.
The BBC’s correspondent, Ahmed Rouaba says that Algerian and French organisations have been campaigning for decades for the truth about Boumendjel’s death.
In 2001, Gen. Paul Aussaresses, who was at the time head of French intelligence in Algeria, confessed to ordering the killing of dozens of Algerian prisoners, including Boumendjel.
Mr. Macron said the latest admission was made “in the name of France”.
The rare dislosure is one of a series of measures aimed at improving relations between France and Algeria and the way both countries perceive the war that brought an end to the colonial rule.
