Founder of Algeria Islamic Salvation Front dies in Qatar

The co-founder of Algeria’s Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), Abbasi Madani, yesterday died in the Qatari capital Doha, local media reported.

In 1988, Madani along with Ali Belhadj and Hashmi Sahnouni announced the establishment of the Islamic Salvation Front which, in 1990, won a majority of votes in the local elections.

However, the Algerian army abolished the election results and jailed the front’s leaders. The movement was dissolved in 1992.

In the same year, a military court sentenced Madani to 12 years in prison after convicting him of “harming state security” before he was released in 1997 for health reasons.

He remained under house arrest until his prison sentence ended in 2004 when he left for Doha where he died yesterday.

Madani was born in 1931 in Sidi Oqba, in the south-eastern province of Biskra, and holds a PhD in education from the UK.

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