media close to power glorify the intelligence services for having foiled “a French plot”

“The plot failed, the eagles of Algeria victorious!” » Under this triumphant title, two Algerian public channels broadcast on December 7, the story of a certain Mohamed Amine Aïssaoui, 35, presented as a former jihadist of the Islamic State (IS) organization.

This 35-year-old man describes himself as a repentant and accuses the French DGSE by name of having recruited him to form armed groups in Algeria. While relations between Paris and Algiers continue to deteriorate, part of the Algerian press repeats these “revelations” emphasizing the « performance » Algerian intelligence services. “A very French charade foiled”, headlined the newspaper L’Expression, accustomed to reproducing the language elements of power.

Mohamed Amine Aïssaoui, according to his account, born in Algeria, grew up in Spain with his parents and lived in France during 2013, from where, he says, he joined ISIS in Iraq. He says he was contacted, in 2022, by the French association Artémis, specialized in “ prevention of radicalization”.

The voice off of the show qualifies this association as “doubtful”due to the fact that it is headed by a former advisor to Bernard Cazeneuve, when he was Minister of the Interior, and by “a naturalized French Moroccan, recently honored by the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, for his “contributions in the field of scientific research””.

At the French Institute of Algiers

The first direct contact with a member of Artémis, filmed by the Algerian security services, took place in April 2023, at Emir-Abdelkader Square, in the heart of Algiers. His contact introduces himself under the name Ivan, the comment assures that it is in fact a “ DGSE executive (…) first secretary of the French embassy… ».

Discussions between the alleged spy take place at the level of the French Institute of Algiers (IFA) or at the Circle of French Veterans in Algiers. Without her being cited by the former jihadist, an inset portrait of the educational cooperation attaché at the French Institute in Algiers at the time is embedded on the television screen.

According to him, Mohamed Amine Aïssaoui was first tasked with collecting information on Islamist radicals in his Tipaza region and migrant smugglers. The DGSE, he assures, wanted to send him to Niger for 50,000 euros in fees to join an armed group, but the project was canceled following the July 2023 coup in that country.

In particular, he was allegedly asked to get closer to radical Islamists in Algiers and Oran. The Algerian security services, he indicates, were constantly informed of his exchanges and would have provided him with false lists of radicals to deliver to the French, before asking him to cease his contacts with them.

“A plan to destabilize Algeria”

It's a “resounding victory of the Algerian security services » rejoices L’Expression. The nationalist site, Patriotic Algeriafounded by General Khaled Nezzar – died at the end of 2023 – greets a “ clear message to France, in this context marked by a rabid campaign, led by the Elysée, the Quai d'Orsay, the DGSE and the paid media, following the arrest of the Franco-Israeli-Moroccan agent Boualem Sansal by the Algerian security services when he got off the plane.

The author, aged 80 and who does not have Israeli nationality, was arrested at Algiers airport on November 16, under an article of the penal code which punishes attacks on security. 'State. Incarcerated in Kolea prison, 35 km from Algiers, after a stint in the penitentiary wing of Mustapha hospital, in the capital. On Wednesday, December 11, the appeal filed by his lawyers was rejected by the indictment chamber of the Algiers Court of Appeal, which decided to continue his detention.

The press close to the Algerian government is far from making its first conspiratorial accusations. In May 2023, L’Expressionciting “security sources”, had revealed a “mysterious plot against Algeria” Or “influential members of the Mossad, five officials of the French intelligence services as well as twelve elements of the Moroccan services” would have gathered in Tel Aviv to “the development of a plan to destabilize Algeria”.

The alleged revelation was all the more surprising as it came after the resolution of the crisis surrounding the “Bouraoui affair”, named after this Algerian opponent who held a French passport and was protected at the last minute from extradition to Algiers by French diplomacy when it took refuge in Tunis at the beginning of February 2023. The media campaign launched around this “mysterious Tel Aviv plot” in full appeasement Franco-Algerian could reveal the existence of tensions between clans of the regime on the attitude to have towards Paris.

In Algiers, some observers wonder if the broadcast of the film accusing the DGSE does not announce restrictions targeting the French Institute of Algiers, one of the most popular cultural places in the country.