\n<\/p>\n
Algeria has asked 12 French embassy staff to leave the country within 48 hours, France’s foreign minister has said.<\/p>\n
Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot added that it was linked to the indictment of three Algerians in France on Friday, one of whom is a consular official.<\/p>\n
They are accused of involvement in the abduction last year of Amir Boukhors, 41, an outspoken critic of Algeria’s government with an audience of more than one million people online. He had reportedly been granted asylum in France in 2023.<\/p>\n
Barrot urged Algeria to “abandon” the expulsions and said France was ready to “respond immediately” if they went ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Never before have French authorities arrested an employee from the Algerian consulate, and the fallout has set back recent attempts to improve relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n
It also points to a power struggle in French politics, with some right-wing politicians accusing the presidency of pandering to Algeria, and the Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau recently threatening to quit unless President Emmanuel Macron backs a more hard-line approach.<\/p>\n
Boukhors, also known as Amir DZ, has lived in France since 2016.<\/p>\n
He was abducted in April 2024 in the southern suburbs of Paris and released the following day, according to his lawyer Eric Plouvier.<\/p>\n
Plouvier told the AFP news agency that Boukhors had been “the subject of two serious attacks, one in 2022 and another on the evening of April 29 2024”.<\/p>\n
French media reported that he was forced into a car with a flashing light by “fake police officers”, then released the next day in woodland without explanation.<\/p>\n
Algerian authorities accuse the influencer of being “a saboteur linked to terrorist groups”. The North African nation has issued nine international arrest warrants against him, accusing him of fraud and associations with terrorist organisations.<\/p>\n
He denies the allegations. In 2022, the French courts refused attempts to extradite him to Algeria.<\/p>\n
The case is the latest in a growing number of incidents to have exacerbated a rift between France and Algeria.<\/p>\n
They include the arrest and imprisonment in Algeria of French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal<\/a>, who was accused of undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity.<\/p>\n