Swiss court rejects appeal of Algerian ex-minister

Former Algerian Defence Minister, Major General Khaled Nizar's appeal to Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court was rejected. A lawsuit was filed against the minister accusing him of committing massacres against humanity and crimes of torture during the early nineties of the last century. It was in the period that the Algerian army waged a war against terrorism, which claimed the lives of Algerians, after the halt of the electoral process. The rejection of the largest Swiss judicial body is the second of its kind, after refusing the appeal filed by Khaled Nizar in July last year. In a statement to Arabstoday, Mr Farouk Ksentini, President of the “Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights” accused foreign parties of taking advantage of its influence in Switzerland – referring to France - to put a pressure on the Swiss courts regarding the case of the ex-minister. He added that these parties aim to destroy the Algerian state institutions, especially the army, which is the striking force of the Algerian state. He described the Federal Court's decision of rejecting the appeal as a "politicised" decision serving foreign interests, stressing that the army has always been the protector of the state from any foreign aggression or internal strife and describing Khaled Nizar as a "national figure" who did his duty toward his country as a military official between 1990 and 1994.