Jakarta –
A jet skier Abdelali Mechouar in Morocco shot dead by Algerian authorities. Mechouar’s family protested because the victim’s body had not been found one month after the incident.
Reported by AFP, Wednesday (27/9/2023), Abdelali Mechouar, a Moroccan citizen living in France, and his French-Moroccan cousin Bilal Kissi were shot on August 29 allegedly by the Algerian coast guard when they got lost on a jet ski, according to a survivor.
Kissi’s body was found on the Moroccan side of the border. However, Mechouar’s body has not been found.
“We have no information about our son’s body,” Mechouar’s father, Mostafa, told AFP.
“We want the process to be accelerated so we can grieve,” he continued.
The incident comes at a time of rising tensions between neighboring North African countries with which they do not have diplomatic relations.
Judge Chergui, the French lawyer for the Mechouar family, said they “have hit a snag,” to which “the military prosecutor’s office has not responded for a week,” he said.
Investigations have been opened by the prosecutor’s office in Oujda, in eastern Morocco near the border with Algeria, and another in France.
Algeria’s defense ministry on September 3 said its security forces had opened fire on the jet skiers “after issuing warnings and ordering them to stop several times”, adding that “the suspects refused to comply and fled”.
The defense ministry said that after several warnings, “shots were fired, forcing one of the jet skis to stop, and the other two to flee”.
In a letter to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Mechouar’s family asked Tebboune to intervene for the immediate return of Mechouar’s body.
(eva/eva)
2023-09-26 19:37:39
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