Algeria: Major General Djebbar, Head of External Security, is Ousted

Tebboune did not wait long to settle his old scores with some of the generals who had conspired to overthrow him just a few months before the end of his first term. The first to pay the price was Major General Djebbar Mehenna.

By Hichem ABOUD

His days were numbered for several months. The arrest of one of his agents, Saïd Bensdira, better known by the nickname “London Rat,” by the French police in Paris last April had exposed the intrigues of the head of external security. All the evidence of General Djebbar Mehenna’s schemes was contained in the laptop and smartphones seized from the rat. “But we had to wait for the presidential election on September 7 to pass, and then we would settle the scores,” confided a close associate of Tebboune.

The successor was already chosen. It is a general who follows the orders of Mohamed Tebboune, the president’s eldest son, and his brother Khaled. The latter became known to the public for his imprisonment in El-Harrach prison in May 2018 on corruption charges and not for the case of the seven quintals of cocaine, as was rumored in the Algerian streets. The new general is Rochdi Fethi Moussaoui, who was in charge of the security office at the Algerian Embassy in Paris.