After almost thirty years spent behind bars, Boualem Bensaïd, one of the authors of the murderous attacks of 1995, is released from this Friday, August 1. But if her release was validated by the Paris Court of Appeal on July 10, she is subject to the condition of her expulsion to Algeria, her country of origin.
At this stage, “no consular bloom has been signed,” said a source close to the file, indicating that Boualem Bensaïd “remains in detention” for the moment.
“I strongly wish it, it is an obligation which is the responsibility of the Algerian authorities,” said Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, interviewed this Friday morning on Franceinfo, suggesting that Algeria had not yet agreed to resume its national.
“In this particular case, I believe that Algeria would show its sense of responsibility by resuming its national,” he continued, before adding: “Our relations have stalling since the brutal decision of Algiers to expel 12 agents”. Last April, in a context of tensions between Paris and Algiers which has lasted for almost a year, Algeria had indeed asked 12 agents of the French Embassy to leave Algerian territory, within 48 hours.
[1/4] Cécile Vallin, the secrets of a disappearance
Crime Story tells the big criminal affairs every week.
Four refusals
Boualem Bensaïd was sentenced in 2002 to life, with a 22-year-old security period, after being convicted of having laid the bomb that exploded in RER B, at Saint-Michel station on July 25, 1995, killing eight and 150 injured. His sentence was confirmed on appeal a year later.
The man had reached the end of his security period in 2017. At the time, he had filed a first request for parole, which was refused, just like the next three. Last May, he challenged the last refusal, but his appeal was rejected by the Court of Cassation. On July 10, he finally obtained the green light from the Paris Court of Appeal.
However, his release had been accepted subject to expulsion to Algeria. This release will be made “subject to the execution of the removal measure and subject to the condemned to leave French territory and not to appear there,” said a source in early July.
Boualem Bensaïd was also found guilty of having deposited the bomb which exploded on October 6, 1995 near the White House station, in the 13th arrondissement. 18 people had been injured. Its complicity was finally recognized in the RER C attack at the Musée d’Orsay station on October 17, 1995 (30 injured).
Judged alongside Smaïn Aït Ali Belkacem, the group fireworks, Boualem Bensaïd was particularly provocative at the hearing, interrupting the judges and denigrating those he called the “so-called victims” of his actions.
