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Execution of French monks in Algeria, the details

March 29, 2018 at 11:47 am

The French monks in Algeria who were killed during the Algerian Civil War in 1996 [Twitter]

Investigations into the death of French monks in Algeria in 1996 reveal that they were likely killed a month before the official announcement of their deaths and were beheaded after their death, Radio France reported today.

In the spring of 1996, during the Algerian Civil War, seven French Trappist monks refused to leave their monastery in Tibhirine, in the Algerian Atlas Mountains. Christian de Chergé, Luc Dochier, Paul Favre Miville, Michel Fleury, Christophe Lebreton, Bruno Lemarchand and Celestin Ringeard remained despite the growing insecurity prevailing in the region of Medea, a hundred kilometres south of Algiers.

The religious men were kidnapped by armed group of 20 late on 26 March or early 27 March.

Two months later, on 23 May 1996, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) claimed it had murdered seven monks two days earlier.

A week later, seven heads were found on a road near Medea. The monks’ bodies have never been located.

Read:  Vatican recognises ‘martyrdom’ of monks killed during Algeria civil war

The 185-page report which France Radio referred to highlighted said the monk’s heads had no traces of bullets when they were discovered and they had probably been buried prior to their discovery.

“This is an extremely important step forward in this case,” the monk’s family’s lawyer, Patrick Baudouin, said. “In light of this expertise, we believe that the official version of the Algerian authorities – an abduction and an execution by the GIA – this simplistic version does not hold .There are too many elements challenged by this report, especially the fact that it is very likely that the monks died well before what has been endorsed by the Algerian authorities.”

In October 2014, Judges Marc Trévidic and Nathalie Poux, travelled to Algeria with a team of experts to investigate the death of the Frenchmen. After the heads were exhumed, samples were taken, but the Algerian authorities refused to allow them to be transferred to France.

It was not until June 2016 that Algerian authorities allowed the samples to be moved.

“We do not yet have the absolute truth,” Baudouin added. Investigations must continue, he said. “The main problem is that a wall of silence reigns over the search for truth. Those who know things are still in power in Algeria.”