Office of the Historian

751S.32/1–2753

The Consul General at Algiers (Lockett) to the Department of State1

No. 167
Algiers, January 27, 1953.

Subject:

  • French Action against Algerian Nationalists

A French court of appeals in Algiers heard cases against the following Algerian nationalist leaders on January 22nd:

  • Ahmed Mezerna, president of the MTLD2 and director of the MTLD organ L’Algérie Libre
  • Ferhat Abbas, secretary general of the UDMA3
  • Larbi Demaghlatrous, MTLD delegate to the Algerian Assembly.

Charged twice for propagation de fausses nouvelles and once for diffamotion, Mezerna originally received sentences totalling 420,000 francs in fines. The court postponed for one week a decision on the appeal.

Meanwhile, the French authorities brought Mezerna into court on January 26th on new charges. For having failed to deposit copies of L’Algérie Libre of November 15, 1952,4 with the proper governmental offices, Mezerna was fined 10,000 francs in addition to fines he might have to pay on the other charges.

Accused of having committed violences a magistrat dans l’exercice de ses functions, Abbas originally received a suspended prison sentence of two months. The appellate court changed the sentence to a fine of 10,000 francs.

Similarly in the case of Demaghlatrous, who allegedly elbowed a policeman, the court changed the sentence from three months and one day in prison to a fine of 50,000 francs.

Also on January 22nd another court of appeals in Algiers reviewed the cases of three young MTLDmilitants who were charged with participation a une manifestation. The court reduced one sentence from three months to two months in prison and confirmed the other two sentences of two months in prison for each of the other two defendants.

Thos. H. Lockett
  1. This despatch was also sent to Paris.↩
  2. The Mouvement du Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques was considered to be the more extreme of the two Algerian nationalist parties. (Despatch 122 from Algiers, Nov. 25, 1952; 751S.00/11–2552)↩
  3. The Union Démocratique du Manifeste Algérien was the second major Algerian nationalist party.↩
  4. The authorities had seized Nos. 56 and 57 of L’Algérie Libre, the issues of Nov. 1 and 15, each of which carried an article considering the problems that would be raised by an alliance with the Communists. (Despatch 122)↩