ALGIERS: A trial in Algeria over the murder of French mountaineer Herve Gourdel by terrorists in 2014 was postponed on Thursday due to the prime suspect’s ill health, judicial sources said.
Abdelmalek Hamzaoui, an alleged terrorist, had arrived at court for the opening hearing of the trial in a wheelchair, and according to a doctor who accompanied him, he is asthmatic and had undergone hip surgery.
“Given the state of health of the main defendant Hamzaoui, the court decided to postpone the case to Feb. 18,” said the presiding judge of the court in Dar El Beida, a suburb of Algiers.
The slain hiker’s partner, Francoise Grandclaude, was “disappointed” about the postponement, said her lawyer, Chawki Benarbia, gave the same reason for the postponement.
Gourdel, 55, was abducted on Sept. 21, 2014 while exploring Djurdjura National Park, a draw for hikers but which has long been a sanctuary for extremists.
Three days after he disappeared, gunmen from militant group Jund Al-Khilafa published a video of his execution-style beheading.
France had rejected their demand to halt airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.
Three months later, after a massive manhunt, Gourdel’s body was found in a booby-trapped grave.
Fourteen people face charges over the case. Only Hamzaoui is known to be in custody.
Seven others are being tried in absentia, but no details have been made public on the charges they face.
Gourdel’s Algerian guides are also accused of failing to alert the authorities to his kidnapping, while another person is facing unspecified charges.
Gourdel’s gruesome killing caused shock both in France and in Algeria, where it triggered memories of the decade-long civil war between Islamists and the army that left some 200,000 dead.
The murder came in the wake of Daesh terrorists dramatic takeover of northern Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014.
Jund Al-Khilafa — Arabic for Soldiers of the Caliphate — had sworn allegiance to Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi just weeks before his killing.
Hamzaoui, arrested in late 2014 on suspicion of belonging to Jund Al-Khilafa, is accused of “kidnapping, torture and premeditated murder” as well as joining an “armed terrorist group” — charges that can carry the death penalty.
Gourdel’s five Algerian guides, who were initially captured alongside him but were released hours later, had also been due to appear in court.
They are accused of neglecting to tell the authorities they were hosting a foreign national and of failing to raise the alarm promptly after he was kidnapped.
The Algerian government has said this delay had given the kidnappers time to flee.
But ahead of the trial, a lawyer for one of the guides had questioned the logic of the charge, which could carry a sentence of up to five years’ jail.
“My client informed the authorities as soon as he could — after he was released by the kidnappers,” said Faycal Ramdani.
Authorities have not made public any details on the other defendants.
Two decades since the end of Algeria’s civil war, the authorities regularly report clashes between the army and militant groups.
In 2016, authorities said they had wiped out almost all the Jund Al-Khilafa group.
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Algeria trial over French mountaineer’s murder postponed
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Algeria trial over French mountaineer’s murder postponed
Village in southern Lebanon buries a child and father killed in Israeli drone strike
- Hassan Jaber, a police officer, and his 3-year-old son, Ali, were on foot when the strike hit a passing car in Yanouh on Monday
- The car’s driver, Ahmad Salami, was also killed. The Israeli military said Salami was an artillery official with Hezbollah
YANOUH: Mourners in southern Lebanon on Tuesday buried a father and his young son killed in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a Hezbollah member.
Hassan Jaber, a police officer, and his child, Ali, were on foot when the strike on Monday hit a passing car in the center of their town, Yanouh, relatives said. Lebanon’s health ministry said the boy was 3 years old. Both were killed at the scene along with the car driver, Ahmad Salami, who the Israeli military said in a statement was an artillery official with the Lebanese militant group.
It said it was aware of a “claim that uninvolved civilians were killed” and that the case is under review, adding it “makes every effort to reduce the likelihood of harm” to civilians.
Salami, also from Yanouh, was buried in the village Tuesday along with the father and son.
“There are always people here, it’s a crowded area,” with coffee shops and corner stores, a Shiite religious gathering hall, the municipality building and a civil defense center, a cousin of the boy’s father, also named Hassan Jaber, told The Associated Press.
When the boy and his father were struck, he said, they were going to a bakery making Lebanese breakfast flatbread known as manakish to see how it was made. They were standing only about 5 meters (5.5 yards) from the car when it was struck, the cousin said.
“It is not new for the Israeli enemy to carry out such actions,” he said. “There was a car they wanted to hit and they struck it in the middle of this crowded place.”
Jaber said the little boy, Ali, had not yet entered school but “showed signs of unusual intelligence.”
“What did this innocent child do wrong, this angel?” asked Ghazaleh Haider, the wife of the boy’s uncle. “Was he a fighter or a jihadi?”
Attendees at the funeral carried photos of Ali, a striking child with large green eyes and blond hair. Some also carried flags of Hezbollah or Amal, a Shiite party that is allied with but also sometimes a rival of Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, of which the child’s father was a member, said in a statement that the 37-year-old father of three had joined in 2013 and reached the rank of first sergeant.
The strike came as Israel has stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon.
The night before the strike in Yanouh, Israeli forces launched a rare ground raid in the Lebanese village of Hebbarieh, several kilometers (miles) from the border, in which they seized a local official with the Sunni Islamist group Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group in English. The group is allied with Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The low-level conflict between Lebanon and Israel escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, later reined in but not fully stopped by a US-brokered ceasefire two months later.
Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities.
Israeli forces also continue to occupy five hilltop points on the Lebanese side of the border. Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the ceasefire.
Hassan Jaber, a police officer, and his child, Ali, were on foot when the strike on Monday hit a passing car in the center of their town, Yanouh, relatives said. Lebanon’s health ministry said the boy was 3 years old. Both were killed at the scene along with the car driver, Ahmad Salami, who the Israeli military said in a statement was an artillery official with the Lebanese militant group.
It said it was aware of a “claim that uninvolved civilians were killed” and that the case is under review, adding it “makes every effort to reduce the likelihood of harm” to civilians.
Salami, also from Yanouh, was buried in the village Tuesday along with the father and son.
“There are always people here, it’s a crowded area,” with coffee shops and corner stores, a Shiite religious gathering hall, the municipality building and a civil defense center, a cousin of the boy’s father, also named Hassan Jaber, told The Associated Press.
When the boy and his father were struck, he said, they were going to a bakery making Lebanese breakfast flatbread known as manakish to see how it was made. They were standing only about 5 meters (5.5 yards) from the car when it was struck, the cousin said.
“It is not new for the Israeli enemy to carry out such actions,” he said. “There was a car they wanted to hit and they struck it in the middle of this crowded place.”
Jaber said the little boy, Ali, had not yet entered school but “showed signs of unusual intelligence.”
“What did this innocent child do wrong, this angel?” asked Ghazaleh Haider, the wife of the boy’s uncle. “Was he a fighter or a jihadi?”
Attendees at the funeral carried photos of Ali, a striking child with large green eyes and blond hair. Some also carried flags of Hezbollah or Amal, a Shiite party that is allied with but also sometimes a rival of Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, of which the child’s father was a member, said in a statement that the 37-year-old father of three had joined in 2013 and reached the rank of first sergeant.
The strike came as Israel has stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon.
The night before the strike in Yanouh, Israeli forces launched a rare ground raid in the Lebanese village of Hebbarieh, several kilometers (miles) from the border, in which they seized a local official with the Sunni Islamist group Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group in English. The group is allied with Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The low-level conflict between Lebanon and Israel escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, later reined in but not fully stopped by a US-brokered ceasefire two months later.
Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities.
Israeli forces also continue to occupy five hilltop points on the Lebanese side of the border. Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the ceasefire.
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