France admits using torture during Algeria War of Independence

The French Presidency yesterday admitted for the first time to instigating a regime of torture during Algeria’s War of Independence which ended in 1962.

In a statement, President Emmanuel Macron officially admits that “the French state allowed the use of torture during the war in Algeria” Le Monde newspaper reported.

“Although the death of Maurice Audin, a French mathematician who struggled for Algeria’s independence was a unilateral act, he died under torture stemming from the system instigated while Algeria was part of France,” the Elysée said.

“On behalf of the French Republic, we admit that Maurice Audin was tortured and executed, or tortured to death by French soldiers who arrested him from his home,” the statement said.

Read: Algeria’s War of Independence from France

Audin was a Communist pro-independence activist and an assistant professor of Mathematics at the University of Algiers. On 11 June 1957 he was arrested from his home in Algiers, likely by French soldiers, and tortured in an abandoned villa in the Algiers neighbourhood of El Biar.

His wife was later informed that he had escaped from captivity. However in 2014, former French President Francois Hollande admitted that Audin had died in detention.