FRANCE-ALGERIA/VALLS Algerian government determined to resolve French tourist beheading, PM Sellal says

Record ID: 574410

  • Title: FRANCE-ALGERIA/VALLS Algerian government determined to resolve French tourist beheading, PM Sellal says
  • Date: 4th December 2014
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - SEPTEMBER 26, 2014) (REUTERS) FRENCH NEWSPAPERS 'LIBERATION,' 'LE FIGARO,' AND 'LE PARISIEN' VARIOUS OF FRENCH NEWSPAPER 'LIBERATION' WITH HEADLINE READING (French): "Decapitated because he was French" FRENCH NEWSPAPER 'LE PARISIEN' WITH HEADLINE READING (French): "The Crime" FRENCH NEWSPAPER 'LE FIGARO' WITH HEADLINE READING (French): "Brutality" PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - SEPTEMBER 28, 2014) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING SIGN READING (French): "TRIBUTE TO HERVE GOURDEL" PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - SEPTEMBER 26, 2014) (REUTERS) SIGN READING (French): "TRIBUTE TO HERVE GOURDEL" VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAECKLRW3RVK6YE4M67A5KNAV7K
  • Story Text: Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal arrived in Paris on Thursday (December 4) for a two-day Franco-Algerian summit hosted by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, and met his French counterpart after a breakfast with President Francois Hollande.
    The two countries signed a series of accords during the summit aimed at strengthening the relationship between France and its former colony.
    Foreign affairs also featured high on the agenda, particularly the September killing of French national Herve Gourdel by Islamic militants on Algerian soil.
    Algeria's military announced last month that they had killed one of the militants involved in the abduction and beheading of Gourdel, and Sellal said that they would not stop the investigation until all perpetrators had been brought to justice.
    The Frenchman's kidnapping was one of the first abductions of a foreigner by militants in Algeria since the North African country ended a decade-long war with Islamist fighters in the 1990s, in which around 200,000 people were killed.
    "We will see this through to the end because there should never make any concession for terrorists. Terrorism has become a challenge for our civilization. The whole world has to be aware of this situation, we need to see this through to the end because human values and humanity depend ," Sellal said.
    Sellal also said that the Algerian authorities were fully cooperating with a French delegation sent to Algeria to investigate the murder of monks in Tibehirine in 1996.
    The families of seven French Trappist monks killed during Islamist-linked violence in 1996 accused Algiers of obstructing the course of justice in refusing to send samples of their remains to Paris where they could undergo further testing.
    The monks were exhumed in October from the Tibehirine monastery, 80 km (50 miles) south of Algiers, and tests were conducted on their skulls, the only parts of their bodies that were recovered.
    "Samples have been taken, the Algerian judge has invited French experts to be present during the analysis of the samples in accordance with standard procedure and international law, and in accordance with the legal precedent between our two countries. There is absolutely no problem with the way this case is evolving," Sellal said.
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