The Islamist Djamel Beghal could be expelled elsewhere than in Algeria

Djamel Beghal, considered the mentor of Chérif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks in 2015, was deported to Algeria after its release on Monday. prison of Vezin-le-Coquet, near Rennes. Algeria, which could only be a stage.

The Islamist Djamel Beghal, considered the mentor of Chérif Kouachi and Amédy Coulibaly, two of the perpetrators of the January 2015 attacks in Paris, was deported to France. Algeria after leaving a French prison on Monday morning. According to a familiar source of security questions in Algiers, Algeria could however be only a stage. The Algerian and French authorities could have concluded a deal for him to go to another African country. The same source quotes Burkina Faso among the possible destinations.

This Algerian 52-year-old, stripped of French nationality, left the prison of Vezin-le-Coquet, near Rennes "around 05:30 in to be taken back to the border " according to a trade union source, and took off shortly after 10:30 from Roissy airport towards Algiers, said sources close to the case. "He was released this morning at 5:20, supported by the (border police). He adopted a calm behavior and was not surprised at the time of his departure " indicated the administration penitentiary.

Expulsable for two years

In the visor of the French authorities since the middle In the 1990s, Djamel Beghal was declared deportable in 2007, two years after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for criminal conspiracy. In Vezin-le-Coquet, in Brittany, he finished serving his second sentence of 10 years in prison for a project of escape in 2010 of Smaïn Aït Ali Belkacem, a former member of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA), sentenced to life imprisonment. an attack on the RER station Musée d'Orsay in Paris in 1995.

The French authorities, who wanted to see him return to Algeria, had been discussing for several weeks with Algiers the conditions for his return to his native country, which he had left at the age of 21 to come to France

"Adequate solution"

"We are working with the Algerian authorities. Things are moving forward, it's a delicate job. I hope we will find the appropriate solution " said Thursday, July 12 the Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet. Beghal was himself in favor of this option. "Ten years ago, we blocked his deportation to Algeria because of the risk of torture. The climate seems to him now calmer " explained his lawyer Bérenger Tourné.

In June 2017, he had himself filed an application for " conditional release-expulsion " to Algeria which was this time rejected by the French justice because of doubts about his "Algerianity" . This time, Djamel Beghal was anxious not to find himself again under house arrest, which amounted to him "to remain deprived of freedom to come and go" had explained Me Bérenger Shot for whom "Nothing was more to oppose his expulsion since all now know he is Algerian" . As to the hypothesis of a refusal by Algeria to welcome his client, the lawyer spoke of "an unprecedented situation" : "If Algeria no longer wants him while there is no doubt about his nationality, then, it makes him a kind of stateless person, which is contrary to international law " he argued.

Djamel Beghal will have made in all, almost 17 years of detention in French prisons. He has become a reference for three generations of jihadist apprentices. Sentenced in 2005, he had admitted – before retracting that he had been tortured by Emirati investigators – to have been appointed by a relative of bin Laden to prepare an attack on the US embbady and cultural center. It is at the prison of Fleury-Mérogis that he meets the future perpetrators of the killings of Charlie Hebdo and the store Hyper Cacher.

According to investigators, he becomes their "mentor" respected for his "religious science" . Released in 2009, he is under house arrest in Cantal, pending a possible expulsion – which is opposed by the ECHR. Photos show him alongside Amédy Coulibaly, who came to visit him. He was arrested again in 2010, and spent a total of 10 years in solitary confinement.