ALGIERS, July 3, 2012 (AFP)
The trial of an Algerian Islamist implicated in the kidnapping of 32 European tourists in the Sahara desert in 2003 was delayed by a court in Algiers on Tuesday because of the defence team’s absence.
Kamel Djermane, an aide to the former number two in the now defunct Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) Amari Saifi alias Abderrazak El-Para, appeared in court charged with “belonging to an armed terrorist group, arms trafficking and kidnapping foreigners.”
Judge Meriem Djebbari delayed the trial until the next criminal session, which is due to begin in September.
“The delay of the trial was expected and our absence was voluntary. We demand the appearance of the instigator of the kidnappings Abderrazak El-Para,” Djermane’s defence lawyer Amine Sidhoum told AFP.
The Algerian authorities have accused Saifi (Abderrazak El-Para) of being primarily responsible for the kidnappings of the tourists, from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands, who were seized in groups while travelling across the Algerian Sahara.
All of them were released by August 2003, within six months of their capture, apart from a German woman found dead of heatstroke in the desert.
Number two in the GSPC, which changed its name to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb in 2007, Saifi has been imprisoned since 2004 and is still awaiting a trial that has been repeatedly delayed due to his absence.
Djermane, also known as Billel Abu Abdeldjalil, was handed over to the Algerian authorities by Libya in 2004 after his arrest by Chadian rebels and transfer to Tripoli.
He is accused of participating in the kidnappings, as well as attending the release of 14 of the hostages in the Kidal region of Mali in August 2003 for a five-million-euro (6.7-million-dollar) ransom payment that Saifi allegedly used to buy arms.
Seventeen of the hostages had been freed three months earlier by the Algerian army north of Tamanrasset, in Algeria.
