Algeria: the surprise guest at the High Security Council meeting
"I am Sergeant Houari, from the CPMI, the death squad. I'm going to tell you about Haddad Abdelkader, alias Nacer El-Djen. He liquidated (editor's note: executed detainees) at the CPMI" (Centre Principal Militaire d'Investigation) of Ben-Aknoun, on the outskirts of Algiers.
The author of this gruesome testimony was a non-commissioned officer who had worked in the death squad of the army's Central Directorate of Security (DCSA) in the 1990s, during the bloody decade of the civil war. A decade marked by the deaths of 250,000 Algerian civilians and soldiers and the disappearance of some 20,000 people. In reality, these disappeared were executed in detention centres run by the security services. They were usually suspects against whom there was no evidence to prosecute them for terrorism. After torturing them atrociously, and to prevent them from telling anyone about their torture, they were simply shot in the head.
Nacer El-Djen
Nacer El-Djen was a lieutenant at the time. He was a member of the "death squad". A team whose mission, when it was created, was the physical liquidation of suspected terrorists. This took place in the evening, at dusk. Wrapped in a "kachabia" (hooded robe), the agent would knock on the suspect's door. The first person to open the door was shot with a Kalashnikov. It didn't matter if it was the wanted terrorist or another member of his family. "The aim was to send a message to the terrorists: even if you hide in the maquis, your families are within our reach," says a former "death squad" officer. Over time, the death squad's mission evolved and its members moved on to the extrajudicial execution of false suspects.
Nacer El-Djen was one of the most bloodthirsty. "Sometimes he would kill up to 20 or 25 people a day," says Sergeant Houari in the video below. "He would argue with his colleagues over the bonuses, which amounted to 10, 15 and 20 million for each head killed. If you have liquidity inside the CPMI, you get 15 million (dinar cents, the equivalent of 1,000 euros); if you have liquidity outside the CPMI, you get 25 million (1,700 euros). He wanted to do more than any of his colleagues. He could kill up to two people a day. A testimony that chills the blood. It is hard to believe that a normal man could indulge in such an exercise. "Before going into action, Nacer took pills," explains Houari, who points out that Nacer was a good friend of his. Sometimes he would give him large sums of money, "up to 8 million (500 euros)".
During the hirak of February 2019, Nacer El-Djen and some of his cronies, including a certain Hocine Boulahya (real name Hamid Oubelaïd), fled to Spain, where they bought magnificent villas with the money they had amassed during the bloody decade. With the arrival of General Chengriha as army chief and strongman of the regime, all the former officers who had distinguished themselves during the civil war as monstrosities returned to service. Even Colonel Djebbar Mehenna, who was serving an eight-year prison sentence, was released after 11 months and is now Director General of External Security.
Nacer El-Djen was even promoted to the rank of general on 5 July 2022. For a little over a year, he has been in charge of the Main Military Operations Centre in Algiers. This is a centre where anyone arrested for "subversive activity" is detained. That is, all political opponents. All the generals and senior or junior officers arrested in the context of settling scores and who today fill the jails of the military prisons pass through this centre for one or more torture sessions under the direction of General Nacer El-Djen.
All those who know of this general's sulphurous past were offended to see him sitting on the High Security Council. However, his position does not allow him to attend meetings of this body. He represented the Director of Internal Security, General Djamel Mejdoub Kehal, "absent for health reasons". However, the day before, he had been present at the handover ceremony at the General Directorate of National Security.
In order to replace General Mejdoub, Nacer El-Djen undoubtedly benefited from a hierarchical promotion. He is now number 2 in the General Directorate of Internal Security. This promotion was undoubtedly achieved with the help of General Djebbar Mehenna, with whom he forms a perfectly harmonious duo. Between them, they symbolise the "new Algeria" promised by the Tebboune-Chengriha tandem.
