PARIS, August 15, 2008 (AFP) — A senior Algerian official suspected of being the mastermind in the murder of a well-known government opponent over 20 years ago was arrested in France, judicial officials and the police said Friday.
Mohamed Ziane Hassani, in charge of Algerian state protocol, was wanted under an international arrest warrant and detained Thursday at Marseille-Marignane airport. He was taken to Paris on Friday.
He is suspected of ordering the killing of Algerian lawyer Ali Mecili who was gunned down on April 7, 1987 outside his Paris home, aged 47. He had lived in France since 1965.
Former Algerian independence fighter Hocine Ait Ahmed, leader of the opposition Socialist Forces Front (FFS) and a major opposition figure who was exiled in Switzerland at the time, accused "Algerian special services" of being behind the killing.
Mecili was Ait Ahmed's spokesman.
He played a major role between Ait Ahmed and Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria's first president, who in 1985 founded a group opposed to president Chadli Bendjedid.
Ben Bella was also certain that Mecili's murder had been ordered by Algiers.
A Paris judge signed the orders for the arrest of Hassani and the suspected killer, Abdelmalek Amellouet, in December last year.
Police in Marseille said Hassani was arrested on his arrival from Algiers.
He carried a diplomatic passport but does not enjoy diplomatic immunity, police said. Hasani tried to convince the police and a prosecutor that his was a case of mistaken identity, but failed, they added.