Abdelmalek Hamzaoui, sentenced to death for the assassination of Nice guide Hervé Gourdel, kidnapped and beheaded by jihadists in Algeria in 2014, appealed, we learned Tuesday from his widow.
Read also: Algeria: the trial of the assassination of French guide Hervé Gourdel postponed to February 18
"
It is the liaison magistrate who transmitted the information to us,
" said Françoise Grandclaude, the widow of the high mountain guide, to AFP, via an SMS by which she confirms the initial information from the daily Nice-Matin. .
Abdelmalek Hamzaoui, 36, was sentenced to death by an Algerian court in February, while the country has applied a moratorium on the death penalty since 1993. The five accompanying persons of the French guide and a sixth defendant, prosecuted for not having informed the authorities of the kidnapping in time, had been acquitted.
Abdelmalek Hamzaoui, 36, had denied having participated in the kidnapping and assassination, claiming that he was accused to "
complete this case and please the French
".
A total of 14 people had been prosecuted in this case: eight suspected jihadists from Abdelmalek Gouri's Jund al-Khilafa group, including seven tried in absentia, for the kidnapping of the guide and his beheading;
and six others, finally acquitted, for not denouncing a crime.
The seven men tried in absentia had also been sentenced to death.
Abdelmalek Hamzaoui, an alleged member of Jund al-Khilafa ("
The Soldiers of the Caliphate
"), a group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) organization that claimed responsibility for the assassination, was captured after the tragedy.
Originally from Nice, Hervé Gourdel, 55, passionate about adventure, was a mountain guide trainer.
Coming to Kabylia at the invitation of his hosts and guides, to explore a new climbing site in the tourist massif of Djurdjura, he was kidnapped on September 21.
3,000 soldiers mobilized by the Algerian army
Before carrying out his threat and broadcasting a video of his execution, Jund al-Khilafa threatened to kill the Nice guide if France did not give up its strikes against ISIS in Iraq.
The Algerian army, which had mobilized around 3,000 soldiers, did not find his remains until January 15, 2015, about twenty kilometers from the place of the kidnapping.
In 2016, the Algerian authorities had assured to have almost eliminated the fighters of Jund al-Khilafa, and in particular his presumed leader, Abdelmalek Gouri, in December 2014, then his successor, Bachir Kharza, in May 2015.