Algerian general Khaled Nezzar who met with late King Hassan II dies at age 86

Retired Algerian general Khaled Nezzar died at the age of 86 on December 29 in Algiers. The former strong man in Algeria was among the rare Algerian personalities, during the dark decade, who were able to meet King Hassan II.

In June 1993, then-Minister of Defense Nezzar went to Morocco with the mission of asking late King Hassan II to hand over Abdelhak Layada, the military leader of the Islamic Army Group (GIA), presented by the military as the top Algerian public enemy. Layada had just fled his country, a few months earlier, to find refuge in the city of Oujda.

«The meeting lasted two hours», Nezzar told Algerian media. On September 29, 1993, the military leader of the GIA was officially handed over to the security services of the eastern neighbor. He remained incarcerated for twelve years in the sinister Serkadji prison, located in the Algerian capital.

The surrender of Abdelhak Layada was only a short parenthesis of Algerian-Moroccan cooperation which ended abruptly only a year later, following the terrorist attack on the Asni hotel in Marrakech.