Trial to begin in Algeria over murder of French hiker

Fourteen suspects face charges, but six years after the murder only one suspect is in custody

A poster depicting Herve Gourdel, 55, a mountain guide who was seized on September 21, 2014 while trekking in the rugged, heavily forested Kabylie region, where Al Qaeda is active. AFP 

The trial of 14 people in connection with the murder of a French mountaineer opens in Algeria this week, more than six years after he was beheaded by ISIS-linked militants during a hiking trip.

Herve Gourdel, 55, was abducted on September 21, 2014 in Djurdjura National Park, whose dense forests, gorges and picturesque lakes are popular with walkers but have been a sanctuary for extremists.

Three days after he disappeared, gunmen from militant group Jund Al Khilafa published a video of his murder.

The French government rejected their demand to halt air strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Three months later, after a manhunt involving thousands of soldiers, Gourdel’s body was found in a booby-trapped grave.

Fourteen people face charges in connection with the case.

Only one is known to be in custody: suspected extremist Abdelmalek Hamzaoui, who is to appear before a court on the outskirts of the capital Algiers on Thursday.

Seven others are to be tried in their absence.

Gourdel’s Algerian guides are accused of failing to alert the authorities to his kidnapping, while another, unidentified person is facing unspecified charges.

Gourdel’s partner, Francoise Grandclaude, expressed relief that the trial was “finally taking place”.

Saying it was “very personal”, she said the process could offer “hope for the families and loved ones of victims affected by terrorism”.

Gourdel’s killing caused shock in France and in Algeria, where it triggered memories of the decade-long civil war between extremists and the army in which about 200,000 people died.

The murder happened after ISIS took over parts of northern Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014.

Jund Al Khilafa – Arabic for "soldiers of the caliphate" – sworn allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi weeks before the murder.

Hamzaoui, arrested in late 2014 on suspicion of belonging to Jund Al Khilafa, is accused of “kidnapping, torture and premeditated murder” and of joining an “armed terrorist group”, charges that can carry the death penalty.

Gourdel’s five Algerian guides are also to appear in court. They were captured with him but were released hours later.

They are accused of neglecting to tell the authorities they were hosting a foreign citizen and of failing to raise the alarm promptly after he was kidnapped.

The Algerian defence ministry said this delay gave the kidnappers time to flee.

But the lawyer of Oussama Dehendi, one of the guides, questioned the logic of the charge, which could carry a sentence of up to five years in jail.

“My client informed the authorities as soon as he could – after he was released by the kidnappers,” Faycal Ramdani said.

“This was what led the authorities to act.”

Two decades since the end of Algeria’s civil war, the authorities regularly report clashes between the army and militant groups.

They said that since Gourdel’s death, at least seven militants involved in his murder have been killed in clashes.

The suspected chief of Jund Al Khilafa, Abdelmalek Gouri, was killed in 2014, also in Kabylie.

His successor, Bachir Kharza, was killed in a mountainous part of Bouira, south-east of Algiers, in May 2015.