Last modified on Mon 8 Mar 2021 06.09 EST
Emmanuel Macron has admitted French soldiers tortured and killed a well-known Algerian lawyer and activist during the country’s independence war.
Ali Boumendjel, 37, died after falling from a sixth-floor window in 1957 during the Battle of Algiers. Until now, his death has been recorded as suicide.
“At the heart of the Battle of Algiers, he was arrested by the French army, hidden, tortured then assassinated on 23 March 1957,” the Elysée said in a statement.
In 2000, Paul Aussaresses, the former head of French intelligence in the Algerian capital, Algiers, confessed to ordering Boumendjel’s murder.
“Paul Aussaresses admitted himself that he had ordered one of his subordinates to kill him and disguise the crime as suicide,” continued the statement.