The Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lounès Magramane, received the French Ambassador to Algeria, Mr. Stéphane Romanet, at the Ministry’s headquarters on Saturday to express Algeria’s strong protest following the decision of the French judicial authorities to indict and remand in pretrial detention one of its consular officers serving on French soil, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad, and African Affairs.
This hearing, the press release states, “was held to express Algeria’s strong protest following the decision of the French judicial authorities to indict and remand in pretrial detention one of its consular officers serving on French soil, as part of the opening of a judicial investigation into the alleged kidnapping of the thug Amir Boukhors, known as AmirDZ, in 2024.”
“Algeria firmly rejects, both in form and substance, the grounds invoked by the French Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office in support of its decision to place its consular officer in pretrial detention,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized.
“Procedurally, Algeria recalls that the consular officer was arrested in public and then placed in police custody without notification through diplomatic channels and in flagrant violation of the immunities and privileges attached to his duties at the Algerian Consulate in Créteil, as well as the prevailing practice in this area between Algeria and France,” the statement said.
He added that “on the merits, Algeria primarily notes the fragility and inconsistency of the rotten and far-fetched argument invoked by the security services of the French Ministry of the Interior during the hearings, which supports this unacceptable judicial cabal solely on the fact that the accused consular officer’s mobile phone allegedly restricted to the home address of the energumen Amir Boukhors.”
“Algeria calls for the immediate release of the consular officer placed in pretrial detention and demands that the rights attached to his duties, both within the framework of international conventions and bilateral agreements, be scrupulously respected in order to allow him to defend himself properly and under the most basic conditions,” the statement insisted.
According to the same source, “this judicial turn, unprecedented in the annals of Algerian-French relations, is not the result of chance and that its occurrence comes in a specific context and with the aim of torpedoing the process of reviving bilateral relations agreed upon between the two Heads of State during their recent telephone conversation.”
“This unfortunate and unwelcome turn of events proves that some French parties are not driven by the same desire to revitalize bilateral relations and that the commitment of both sides is not at the confluence of the good faith and sincerity necessary to meet the conditions for a peaceful resumption of the normal course of bilateral relations,” the text continues.
“We cannot help but be surprised by the cynical choice made by the gravediggers of the normalization of bilateral relations regarding the thug used as the catalyst for this new premeditated action.” The clumsy eagerness to use this thug as a new standard for the anti-Algerian eloquence that drives its instigators contrasts with the long-standing passivity in handling extradition requests issued by the Algerian authorities against this subversive activist linked to terrorist organizations.
“This new, unacceptable and unspeakable development will cause great damage to Algerian-French relations and will not contribute to calming the situation. Algeria has no intention of letting this situation go unchallenged, and it will ensure that it fully and resolutely assumes responsibility for the protection of its consular agent,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release concluded.