Fernand Iveton (his surname is sometimes erroneously rendered as "Yveton"; 12 January 1926,

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

– 11 February 1957) was the only pied noir among the 198 supporters of the FLN who were executed (as opposed to being killed in battle) during the

Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

. Iveton was born in 1926 in

to a Spanish mother and a French father. The father was a member of the

Algerian Communist Party The Algerian Communist Party (; ) was a communist party in Algeria. The PCA emerged in 1920 as an extension of the French Communist Party (PCF) and eventually became a separate entity in 1936. Despite this, it was recognized by the Comintern i ...

(PCA) which the younger Iveton also joined, at the age of sixteen. When the PCA and the FLN signed an agreement in 1956, Iveton, who was a member of the Communist Combattants de la Libération joined the FLN as an individual member. In November 1956, Iveton, who worked as a turner at the Algerian Gas Company, was given the task of planting a bomb at the Hamma power station. In order not to kill anybody, he decided both to place the bomb in his locker and to set the timer so that the bomb would explode when the workplace would be empty. However, because of his political record, Iveton was closely watched and the bomb was found before it could explode. Iveton was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to death after a one-day trial. A group of lawyers attempted to get President

René Coty Gustave Jules René Coty (; 20 March 188222 November 1962) was President of France from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president of the Fourth French Republic. Early life and politics René Coty was born in Le Havre and studied at th ...

to commute the sentence, noting the fact that nobody had been killed or injured, or would have been killed or injured if the bomb had exploded. They failed, because of the press campaign that had been mounted against Iveton.

François Mitterrand François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...

, Minister of Justice in the Socialist led Government was in favor of the execution of Iveton. He was guillotined in the yard of

Barberousse ''Barberousse'' is a 1917 silent film, silent French film directed by Abel Gance. Cast * Léon Mathot as Trively * Émile Keppens as Gesmus * Maud Richard as Odette Trively * Germaine Pelisse as Pauline * Yvonne Briey * Henri Maillard * Doriani ...

prison in

on 11 February 1957. A short time later, his accomplices, Jacqueline and Abdelkader Guerroudj, were tried. He was a political officer who liaised between the Combattants de la Libération and the FLN, while she was a teacher, originally from

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

in France. She had been given the task of handing the bomb materials to Iveton; on being given the assurance that no lives would be lost, she did so. The Guerroudjs were condemned to death but never executed, partly due to a campaign conducted by

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she ...

References

;Sources
The Iveton Affair
* Jean-Luc Einaudi, ''Pour l'exemple, l'affaire Fernand Iveton'', éditions L’Harmattan, Paris, 1986 {{DEFAULTSORT:Iveton, Fernand 1926 births 1957 deaths French communists Executed communists Pieds-noirs People from Algiers Algerian War torture victims People executed by the French military by guillotine Saboteurs French torture victims Executed French people