Kasdi Merbah (, 16 April 1938 – 21 August 1993), whose real name is Abdallah Khalef, was an Algerian politician who served as

Head of Government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

between 5 November 1988 and 9 September 1989 when he was a member of the National Liberation Front. He was

assassinated Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

on August 21, 1993.

Biography

Kasdi Merbah was born on the 16th of April 1938 in the province of

Beni Yenni Beni Yenni (; ) is a town and commune in Tizi Ouzou Province in northern Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia borde ...

. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he was the head of the Sécurité Militaire, the Algerian state intelligence service. Before the

1988 October Riots The 1988 October Riots were a series of street-level disturbances and riotous demonstrations by Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to ...

he had served as Minister of Agriculture and then Minister of Public Health, and the following month he was appointed prime minister. However, during his tenure he had an increasingly fractious relationship with President

Chadli Bendjedid Chadli Bendjedid (; ALA-LC: ''ash-Shādhilī bin Jadīd''; 14 April 1929 – 6 October 2012) was an Algerian military officer and politician who served as the third President of Algeria. His presidential term of office ran from 9 February 1979 ...

, and was removed from office in September 1989.

Frank Tachau Frank Tachau (19 October 1929, Braunschweig, Germany – 23 July 2010, Sykesville, USA) was an American scholar of German descent. Scholars have noted that his work contributed to expanding the study of the Middle East into a comparative field. H ...

(1994) ''Political parties of the Middle East and North Africa'', Greenwood Press, p. 45. Public criticism of Bendjedid led to him becoming isolated within the FLN, and in October 1990 he left the party to form the Algerian Movement for Justice and Development, known by its acronym "MAJD", meaning "glory" in Arabic. However, the party failed to win a seat in the 1991 parliamentary elections, the results of which were annulled after a military coup. Merbah appeared to be a very moderate politician and tried (secretly and overtly) to help in finding a solution for the

Algerian Civil War The Algerian Civil War (), known in Algeria as the Black Decade (, ), was a civil war fought between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups from 11 January 1992 (following a 1992 Algerian coup d'état, coup negating an Islami ...

that followed the coup. A great number of analysts attribute his assassination to his past in the security services and the many state secrets he possessed, beside the apparent moderate posture he had adopted with regard to dealing with the Islamist movements, particularly the FIS who went for the armed option. On August 21, 1993, Kasdi was assassinated in

Bordj El Bahri Bordj El Bahri is a municipality of the city of Algiers in northern Algeria. Bordj El Bahri is on the peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each contin ...

along with his younger son Hakim, his brother Abdelaziz, his driver Hachemi Ait Mekidèche, as well as his bodyguard Abdelaziz Nasri. They were attacked with automatic pistol fire by a band of five men while driving in Alger-Plage, a coastal resort 12 miles east of the capital, police said. The murder was condemned by agents of the

FIS FIS or fis may refer to: Science and technology * '' Fis'', an ''E. Coli'' gene * Fis phenomenon, a phenomenon in linguistics * F♯ (musical note) * Flight information service, an air traffic control service * Frame Information Structure, a S ...

in Europe who claimed it was carried out by the Algerian intelligence service, while the responsibility was claimed by the

GIA ''Gia'' is a 1998 American biographical drama television film about the life and times of one of the first supermodels, Gia Carangi. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Gia and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, with Mercedes Ruehl and Elizab ...

References

1938 births 1993 deaths Assassinated Algerian politicians Algerian Berber politicians People murdered in Algeria Kabyle people National Liberation Front (Algeria) politicians People from Tizi Ouzou Province Agriculture ministers of Algeria Health ministers of Algeria Public health ministers 20th-century Algerian politicians Algerian intelligence agency personnel Directors of intelligence agencies African politicians assassinated in the 1990s Politicians assassinated in 1993 {{Algeria-politician-stub