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Algeria Unanimously Passes Law Declaring French Rule a Crime of State

France denounced the measure as “manifestly hostile” despite expert assessments that it creates no legal obligations for Paris.

Overview

  • The 5‑chapter, 27‑article statute demands official apologies and reparations, assigning legal responsibility to the French state for harms from 1830 to 1962.
  • It deems listed colonial abuses imprescriptible, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial executions, widespread torture and systematic pillage.
  • The law directs Algeria to press France to decontaminate Sahara test sites—reporting notes 17 tests between 1960 and 1966—and to seek restitution of removed assets and archives.
  • Domestic provisions criminalize praising or denying colonial crimes, label harki collaboration as “high treason,” and provide prison terms and loss of civil and political rights.
  • Lawmakers also approved a nationality‑code amendment enabling denaturalization of certain binationals for acts harming Algeria’s interests abroad, while Paris says it will pursue a “demanding” dialogue as relations deteriorate following its 2024 Western Sahara stance.