ALGIERS: The trial opened before an Algiers court on Thursday in the 2014 kidnapping and beheading of a French mountaineer claimed by a radical faction affiliated to Daesh.
Just one of the alleged kidnappers of 55-year-old mountain guide instructor Herve Gourdel was in court for the trial — the other seven are being tried in absentia.
Members of Gourdel’s family, including his partner Francoise Grandclaude, were in the public gallery.
The main defendant Abdelmalek Hamzaoui was brought to court by ambulance in a wheelchair accompanied by a medical team and watched over by police special forces.
At the request of defense lawyers, the trial opening had been delayed for two weeks because of his ill health.
Hamzaoui could face the death penalty if convicted. Six other defendants in court are accused of failing to inform authorities promptly of Gourdel’s abduction.
Five were Gourdel’s climbing companions and spent 14 hours in captivity along with him.
The sixth is accused of failing to promptly report the theft of his car by the kidnappers to transport the captive Frenchman.
All six face up to five years in prison if they are found guilty. Gourdel’s murder sparked outrage in both France and Algeria.
The adventure enthusiast had traveled to Algeria at the invitation of his climbing companions to try out a new climb.
His kidnappers from the Jund Al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) group demanded an end to airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq and Syria by a US-led coalition that included France.
Three days after abducting him, they released grisly video footage of his beheading.
Gourdel’s body was not recovered until January the following year after an operation involving some 3,000 Algerian troops.
French mountaineer’s killing: Algiers trial opens
https://arab.news/vtcwx
French mountaineer’s killing: Algiers trial opens
- All six face up to five years in prison if they are found guilty. Gourdel’s murder sparked outrage in both France and Algeria
Russia says foreign forces in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate targets’
- Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries
MOSCOW: Russia would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, citing Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The ministry’s comment, one of many it said were in response to questions put to Lavrov, also praised US President Donald Trump’s efforts at working for a resolution of the war and said he understood the fundamental reasons behind the conflict.
“The deployment of military units, facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries in Ukraine is unacceptable to us and will be regarded as foreign intervention posing a direct threat to Russia’s security,” the ministry said on its website.
It said Western countries — which have discussed a possible deployment to Ukraine to help secure any peace deal — had to understand “that all foreign military contingents, including German ones, if deployed in Ukraine, will become legitimate targets for the Russian Armed Forces.”
The United States has spearheaded efforts to hold talks aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine and a second three-sided meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives is to take place this week in the United Arab Emirates.
The issue of ceding internationally recognized Ukrainian territory to Russia remains a major stumbling block. Kyiv rejects Russian calls for it to give up all of its Donbas region, including territory Moscow’s forces have not captured.
Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries.
The ministry said Moscow valued the “purposeful efforts” of the Trump administration in working toward a resolution and understanding Russia’s long-running concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion and its overtures to Ukraine.
It described Trump as “one of the few Western politicians who not only immediately refused to advance meaningless and destructive preconditions for starting a substantive dialogue with Moscow on the Ukrainian crisis, but also publicly spoke about its root causes.”
