Abdelkader Hachani

Abdelkader Hachani

Abdelkader Hachani ( pronunciation  /ɑːbdᵻlˈkɑːdær ˈhɑːʃʌniː/ Arabic: عبد القادر حشاني‎‎) (1956–1999) was a leading figure and founding member of the Islamic Salvation Front (or FIS), an Algerian Islamic party.

Career

Following the arrests of Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj on June 30, 1991, he became the party's effective leader (after four days of contested leadership by Mohamed Said.) He led the party to victory in the National Assembly elections of December 1991; shortly afterwards, he was arrested on January 22, 1992.

As the Algerian Civil War raged, he was released in July 1997. The court handed him a sentence of five years, which he had already served waiting for the trial. He played a prominent role in negotiating the Islamic Salvation Army's (AIS) cease-fire of October 1997, but condemned President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's Civil Harmony Act.

Hachani was shot by an assassin in the waiting room of a dental clinic in the Bab El Oued district of Algiers on November 22, 1999, and subsequently died in hospital.^[1][2] In December, the government announced that it had arrested Fouad Boulemia, a GIA member, for the murder; Boulemia was convicted in a controversial trial, sentenced to death, and then released.

Hachani was trained as a petrochemical engineer. Within FIS, he was considered a member of the Djaz'ara (Algerianist) wing. He left four children behind.

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