ALGIERS- The trial for the assassination of young Djamel Bensmail began on Tuesday, at the Dar El Beïda first instance criminal tribunal, in the presence, in particular, of the father of the deceased, assassinated as a reminder, on August 11, 2021 in the town of Larbaa Nath Irathen, in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou, by a group of individuals who unfairly accused him of being the cause of the forest fires that had ravaged the region.
Nearly one hundred defendants, placed in preventive detention, will be called to the bar.
They are prosecuted, in particular, for charges related to the “lynching and assassination of the young Djamel Bensmail, followed by the mutilation of his body, attack on state security and aggression against security personnel, attempts to sow terror among populations and membership in terrorist organizations”.
As a reminder, Djamel Bensmaïl, 36, came from Miliana to help the affected population in the Tizi-Ouzou region. He had volunteered in the village of Larbaa Nath Irathen to help put out fires that have claimed at least 90 lives in less than a week.
Once there, the man is suspected by locals of having tried to start a fire.
Learning of these suspicions, Djamel Bensmaïl goes to the police station. But he will not have time to fully give his version of the facts.
As a police van transporting him to the police station advances through the village, a white-hot crowd gathers around him, and pulls him out of the vehicle after hitting him. Djamel is lynched to death and burned alive by an angry mob.
A few days after this tragedy which shook the country, the police services arrested 36 suspects in this lynching affair, including 3 women, among them the one who incited to cut his throat while he was burned in a video widely relayed on social networks.
The youngster, who was filming as he stabbed the victim, was arrested as he tried to flee to Morocco. Thanks to the confessions of those arrested, new suspects have been arrested.
“As part of the continuation of the investigation opened by the DGSN in the case of the assassination of the young Djamel Bensmaïl in Larbaâ Nath Irathen, the specialized services of national security arrested 25 other suspects, who were on the run in several wilayas of the country”, had then indicated the DGSN, specifying the presence among them, of members of the classified terrorist organization MAK.
The DGSN had also affirmed that the exploitation of the telephone had made it possible to discover astonishing information on the true motives of the murder, not disclosed due to the secrecy of the instruction.
On August 24, 2021, Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra announced, during a press conference during which he announced the severance of relations with Morocco, that this country had cooperated with the two terrorist groups, namely MAK (Movement for the self-determination of Kabylia) and Rachad whose involvement has been proven in the heinous crimes linked to the fires experienced by a number of wilayas in the country.
The head of diplomacy had also accused the two organizations of being behind the assassination of Djamel Bensmaïl. Since then, the investigation has continued and arrests have multiplied.
Source: La Patrie News
