Overview
- Algeria’s National People’s Assembly unanimously passed the law defining French rule from 1830 to 1962 and its lingering effects as criminal.
- The legislation lists roughly 30 categories of abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence, use of banned weapons, and nuclear tests in the Sahara.
- Provisions impose prison terms of five to ten years for glorifying, propagating, or justifying colonization or insulting national memory.
- France’s foreign ministry called the move "clearly hostile" but said it will keep working to rebuild dialogue with Algiers on security and migration, according to AFP.
- Algerian officials signal readiness to pursue legal avenues for apologies and compensation, with regional backing from an early December anti-colonialism conference in Algiers.