Habib Souaidia

Habib Souaidia
BornApril 16, 1969 in Tebessa, Algeria
NationalityAlgerian, French

Habib Souaidia (Arabic: حبيب سوايدية), (born April 16, 1969, in Tébessa, Algeria), is an Algerian writer who served as a sub-lieutenant in the Algerian Special Forces before defecting to France during the Algerian Civil War.

His career

Souaidia is known for his book "The Dirty War" (2001), in which he accuses the army of being behind massacres against civilians in the suburbs of the capital, especially Bentalha and Rais massacres. The former Algerian Minister of Defense, General Khaled Nezzar, announced on August 22, 2001, that he had filed a lawsuit against sub-lieutenant Habib Souaidia, who was a refugee in France.[1][2]

An Algerian court sentenced him in absentia to twenty years in prison on April 29, 2002, for his participation in a project "to weaken the morale of the army and conspire to undermine the integrity of the national territory."

In January 2006, the Bouira court sentenced him to death in absentia, on charges of "kidnapping and killing" in July 1994 of three people in the Lakhdaria region, while he was in the region.[3] Souaidia considered that the death sentence handed down to him for killing civilians is "unrealistic and evidence that the Algerian regime is a "vichy regime" that has thrown the country into a civil war."[4]

His work

  • The Dirty War (French: La Sale Guerre), 2001.[5]
  • The dirty war trial (French: Le Procès de la sale guerre), (co-author), 2002.[6]
  • Algeria's Hirak: The Invention of an Uprising (French: Hirak en Algérie: L'invention d'un soulèvement), (co-author), 2020.[7]

References

  1. ^ "الجنرال نزار يقاضي الملازم سوايدية في فرنسا, أخبــــــار". 2021-06-06. Archived from the original on 6 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  2. ^ "Procès K. Nezzar / H. Souaidia : Presse algérienne du 1 juillet 2002 – Algeria-Watch". algeria-watch.org. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  3. ^ "Habib Souaïdia condamné à mort par contumace". Le Monde. 2021-04-09. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  4. ^ "سوايدية يقول إن كتاب الحرب القذرة وراء الحكم بإعدامه". 2020-11-30. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  5. ^ "الحرب القذرة by حبيب سويدية". 2020-10-15. Archived from the original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  6. ^ "Le Procès de "la sale guerre" by Habib Souaïdia". 2021-06-07. Archived from the original on 7 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  7. ^ "Hirak en Algérie: L'invention d'un soulèvement by Omar Benderra". 2021-06-06. Archived from the original on 6 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-04.