Algeria: General Abdelkader Haddad to be appointed head of DGSI

At the end of the Eid El-Fitr prayer at the newly inaugurated Grand Mosque in Algiers, and while receiving congratulations from senior government officials and the diplomatic corps of Muslim countries accredited in Algiers, General Abdelkader Haddad, alias Nacer El-Djen (the devil), presented himself to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to present his congratulations in turn. The exchange between the two men left an indelible mark on all Algerians who followed the scene on public television. "Mr Nacer, get ready," the president shouted aloud to the general, calling him by the pseudonym by which he became known as the most feared assassin in Algerian and world history. 

This is confirmation that this genocidal man has been appointed head of the DGSI. This information has been circulating since he took over from General Djamel Kehal Mejdoub, who suffered a stroke last January and was rushed to Brussels. General Abdelkader Haddad's appearance at the meeting of the High Security Council on 12 January announced that he was acting de facto as head of the DGSI. Those familiar with the inner workings of the Algerian secret services quickly understood the role played by General Djebbar Mehenna (seated to his left) in driving the serial killer of the 1990s.  

Nacer El-Djen was also implicated in the assassination of Colonel Kasdi Merbah, former head of the secret services in the 1970s. He was part of the commando responsible for the execution of this man who became a fierce opponent of the black cabinet regime led by Generals Larbi Belkheir and Khaled Nezzar.  

The assassination took place on 21 August 1993 in Bordj-El-Bahri, a seaside resort west of Algiers. He was accused of trying to bring a clan of the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) to power, whose success in the first round of the 1991 legislative elections had halted the electoral process and forced the resignation of Chadli Benjedid, then President of the Republic. 

The assassination of General Djamel Laroussi in his cell in the Blida military prison in September 2023 is also attributed to General Abdelkader Haddad, according to generally well-informed sources.  

As head of the "Antar Centre", a hotbed of torture, General Haddad has been denounced by many of the victims who passed through this barracks in Ben-Aknoun, on the outskirts of Algiers. All civilians and military personnel who had expressed an opinion hostile to the Tebboune-Chengriha regime were subjected to torture in order to dismantle the networks of political opponents. This was the case with General Laroussi, former head of the 2nd military region, whose arrest led to the arrest of more than fifteen senior army officers and a dozen businessmen suspected of conspiring against the army chief of staff, General Saïd Chengriha. 

The appointment of the torturer and serial killer Nacer El-Djen as head of the internal security services, long before his announcement, provoked outrage among many military personnel. As for the families of his victims, who are still missing, they are preparing to take their case to UN human rights bodies to demand that he be brought before international criminal tribunals.