The Heavy Legacy of Colonel Slimane Bouchouareb
He did not leave behind well-stocked bank accounts in Switzerland or elsewhere, nor breweries or hotels, let alone luxurious villas on the French Riviera or in Spain. Just a family house that the heirs are unable to benefit from due to sordid stories that only the Algerian justice system knows how to fabricate from scratch.
In 2009, in Paris, Colonel Slimane Bouchouareb passed away. His last position was as the Director of Military Personnel and Justice at the Ministry of National Defense until 1989. This man, a graduate of the Moscow Military Academy and the Paris War College, was also the aide-de-camp to President Houari Boumédiène in the late 1960s.
“I must clarify that this man left no unpaid hospital bills in Paris,” confides one of his close friends. Indeed, his wife, a native Frenchwoman and a healthcare executive, contributed to a French health insurance plan, covering both herself and her husband.
The former director of military personnel and justice had, for personal reasons, expressed to his family his wish not to be buried in Algeria. He chose to have his final resting place in Gironde, the birthplace of his wife’s family. To prevent any retaliations against his wife and children—given that his burial would take place in the land of the “enemy”—he informed a former senior officer of the DRS (Department of Intelligence and Security), Colonel Mohamed Chafik Mesbah.
In the tribute he wrote after his death in the newspaper Le Soir d’Algérie, Colonel Mesbah revealed that the deceased had refused to be buried in Algeria in the presence of “greedy, mediocre, and servile” individuals whom he despised (one can imagine whom he had in mind).
A few days before the funeral, the deceased’s family was subjected to unbearable pressure (to put it mildly) to agree to the repatriation of the body by special flight to Algiers… in vain.
Following the funeral in a cemetery near Bordeaux, an Algerian Minister close to Bouteflika, Abdeslam Bouchouareb—who was the half-brother of the deceased Colonel (though they had been estranged for 20 years)—invited himself to the ceremony and threatened the grieving family with these words:
“This burial in French soil will cost you dearly in Algiers.”
The threats of retaliation were swiftly carried out.
Shortly after the funeral, the widow traveled to Algiers to initiate inheritance proceedings. There, she was informed that in order to inherit from her husband, she was required to convert to Islam. As a devout Catholic, she replied with dignity:
“Converting to Islam out of self-interest, even to claim what rightfully belongs to me, would be an insult to my conscience and probably even to your religion.”
As a result, she was forcibly excluded from the inheritance. However, according to a legal expert, given that she had purchased the family villa with her husband, she should never have been excluded from the inheritance.
A few weeks later, when the Colonel’s son and daughter arrived in Algiers, they learned that they too had been excluded from their father’s estate—on the grounds of apostasy, an accusation that was completely fabricated and never proven.
The Colonel’s son was even accused by the Bir Mourad Raïs court in Algiers of having changed his Algerian first name to a Christian one after settling in France in the early 1990s. This accusation, completely baseless, was debunked with solid proof during his appeal before the same court.
Ironically, the main accuser, a member of the family, was the only true apostate in this case, according to the criteria of the Algerian Ministry of Justice. Thanks to discreet but well-intentioned tips from outraged Algerian figures, the Colonel’s son hired a well-known private investigator in Paris to investigate this accuser, who claimed to be a patriotic and devout Muslim.
The findings were shocking:
The accuser, a dual French-Algerian citizen, was PACSed in France (a civil union) with a Christian French lawyer. Together, they owned a luxurious apartment near the Moulin Rouge in Paris-Montmartre.
When the family’s courageous Kabyle lawyer presented this investigation report to the Birmandreis court in Algiers, the apostasy charge was suspended.
Yet, 15 years after Colonel Slimane Bouchouareb’s death, his heirs are still denied their rightful inheritance.
Worse, the accuser, who in 2024 was sentenced to 3 years in prison, never served her sentence, thanks to the intervention of a retired military magistrate.
Similarly, in 2014, she had already been sentenced to 18 months in prison, which she never served, thanks to a “life-saving phone call.”
This retired military magistrate, along with others, will be mentioned in the international complaint currently being prepared.
“There is no justice in Algeria because there is no rule of law in Algeria, simply because there are no longer any living forces of the nation in Algeria,” laments one of the Colonel’s sons. He adds:
“So what remains of the nation?”
Before answering himself:
“All that remains is a deceptive and decayed façade, behind which even the ‘elections’—from the ‘President of the Republic’ to the smallest municipal councilor—are rigged and fraudulent.”
Yes, everything in Algeria is rigged and fraudulent.
Gone is the sense of duty, honor, dignity, patriotism, and the desire to build a progressive, just, modern, and respected nation, which existed until the late 1970s.
Intellectuals—and not just them—who continue to flee the country, observe in shame as their leaders beg for money on all sides, shamelessly collecting development aid and subsidies.
Most of this financial aid comes from the European Union and North America.
Beyond the question of what happens to this money, a serious moral and ethical issue arises:
How can Algeria prohibit a European woman from inheriting from her Algerian husband because she is Christian, while simultaneously accepting money from European taxpayers—who are overwhelmingly Christian or Jewish?
This question could be the subject of a thesis in a faculty of psychology and psychoanalysis.
It could even be examined at the ENA (National School of Administration) in its diplomacy program or in a business school.
After all, diplomacy is not submission, just as commerce is not corruption.
It should be noted that Algeria has received numerous financial aids from Europe, particularly in the justice sector.
Among the various programs funded by the European Union for Algerian justice, one stands out:
The PASJA (Support and Assistance Program for Algerian Justice).
Funded with 10 million euros from the EU and an additional 500,000 euros from France, its primary goals were:
- Independence and modernization of the justice system
- Better access to rights and fair justice
In the end, these funds were wasted, as the Algerian justice system continues to issue unjust rulings based on religious bias, trampling on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which it has ratified.
Through its shameful practices, the Algerian regime openly disrespects its Western donors, including America and Europe.
But then again, what else could be expected from a country that doesn’t even respect its own laws?
