BY MICHEL PRAIRIE AND FLORENCE DUVAL
FLEURY-MÉROGIS, France - "It's all for Algerian oil," was the unanimous declaration of a dozen of the defendants as they waited outside the specially equipped gymnasium where the trial of 138 people, most of them of Algerian origin, is taking place. The French government has accused the 138 of a "criminal association in relation to a terrorist undertaking."

The so-called "Chalabi" trial, named after defendant Mohamed Chalabi, supposedly targets the logistical support network of the Islamic Armed Groups (GIA) in France, which is waging an armed struggle against the French-backed military dictatorship in Algeria. The supposed conspiracy allegedly involved collecting arms and money and producing false documents.

Algeria is a former French colony, which won its independence in the early 1960s after a hard-fought war for national liberation. French imperialism has maintained powerful economic, political, and military interests in the country, particularly in petroleum products, of which Algeria is one of the world's biggest producers.

The civil war in Algeria, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, began after the government canceled elections in 1992 due to the probable victory of the Islamic Salvation Front candidates. The government and media in France constantly portray the GIA as responsible for grisly massacres in Algeria despite increasing evidence that government-sponsored death squads are responsible for much of the killing.

The Chalabi trial, the largest "antiterrorist" trial to ever be organized in France, began September 1 and is expected to last for two months.

The 138 defendants were among more than 200 people arrested in two large series of raids in November 1994 and June 1995. Hundreds of police were involved. Many of those arrested were held in prison during the police investigation for days, months, and, in some cases, years.

Of those initially arrested, 176 were officially put under investigation. Charges were dropped against 33, although not before some had spent up to eight months in prison. Finally, 143 were indicted. One of them committed suicide in prison and four others fled. Twenty-seven of the defendants are currently imprisoned; the other 111 are "free" but are supposed to report each day of the trial.

Most defendants boycott show trial
The trial and investigation are being carried out by a special tribunal set up under the "antiterrorism" laws adopted in 1986. For the last 12 years, these laws have been principally used against Basque and Corsican activists, two oppressed nationalities in France, as well as against Algerians. A special law adopted in December 1997 moved the Paris trial into a gymnasium located just outside the suburban Fleury-Mérogis prison, far from the city center.

The coalition government of the Socialist, Communist, and Green parties led by Premier Lionel Jospin, has organized the trial as a demonstration of police force. Five companies of heavily armed gendarmes - that is more than 300 cops - are present. Roadblocks have been set up on routes leading to the trial and people must pass through an x-ray machine before entering the court. The prisoners are subjected to a body search six times a day. Prisoners are seated in two special boxes made of bulletproof glass.

The first day of the proceedings, 60 lawyers representing about three quarters of the defendants demanded a new trial, the release of those defendants who are still imprisoned, and the lifting of all judicial surveillance.

In court, Jean-Jacques de Felice, a specialist in immigrant rights who was once a defense lawyer for anticolonialist fighters during the Algerian war, denounced the choice of the trial site as worthy of "totalitarian regimes," the use of special "antiterrorist laws," and the trial's "mass character." Then, the 60 lawyers walked out of the courtroom, followed by about 100 of the defendants.

Most have boycotted the proceedings since, refusing to recognize their legitimacy. Many defendants have no idea what they are concretely accused of doing. Among those imprisoned, four have refused to appear. The first day of the trial, half of the defendants refused to rise when the judges entered the courtroom.

"What is this crime of which we are accused?" Mohamed Chalabi asked on the third day of the trial. "This began with a police plot, then a pretense of an investigation, and continued with a judicial masquerade." In spite of the boycott, the tribunal has continued, trying the defendants in absentia.

Police issued blank warrants
The few defendants present in the days after the trial opened showed their opposition by going outside to talk in front of the gymnasium. This is where Militant correspondents were able to interview several of them September 7. Those who spoke would only give their first name, out of fear of reprisals against their families in Algeria.

Mohamed, who is about 30, told how he had been arrested in November 1994 instead of his brother, with whom he lodged. His brother was absent at the time. Mohamed spent two years in prison, and was then released while awaiting trial. "I have lost two shops, an import-export service, two apartments, and a car," he said.

Rabah, a 50-year-old restaurant owner, said the police invaded his home at 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 8, 1994, and pointed guns at the heads of his young children. During their search, the police destroyed everything in his home, which he said happened to many others too. "They did not even go into the garage, which shows that they really were not looking for evidence," he added.

Rabah pointed out that in many cases the police had blank warrants to which they added names after people were arrested.

These two defendants said that their lawyers did not even come to the trial. "They knew," Mohamed said, "that this trial was lost in advance." The court then appointed Mohamed and Rabah lawyers, who will be paid less than $126 for their services during the two-month trial.

In addition, according to newspaper reports, defense lawyers do not have access to the sections of the trial dossier concerning their clients. The dossier is 74 volumes, totaling about 50,000 pages.

Mohamed in particular denounced the support given by Paris to the dictatorship of Algerian president and general Liamine Zeroual. He explained how today workers in Algeria are owed months of back pay because of the economic crisis. Two Algerians who were recently expelled from France were assassinated and a third "disappeared," he said. "If you return, you die."

The League of Human Rights, the daily Le Monde, the judges union, the order of Parisian lawyers, the Algerian fraternity in France, and a group of 54 intellectuals and artists have denounced the way in which the trial has been organized. After a week, even the conservative daily Le Figaro, a generally faithful mouthpiece of the French ruling class that had supported the trial, spoke of a "fiasco" in an editorial titled "Stop the damage."

Most of these statements are within the context of overall support to the government's "antiterrorism" campaign. The League of Human Rights, for instance, declared, "The trial should be ended, the procedure for judging the defendants should be reorganized, and they should be judged with firmness but in a serene atmosphere that is more becoming of a strong democracy that is sure of itself."

The defense lawyers have appealed the courts refusal to release those defendants who remain imprisoned. Some have asked a higher court to suspend the trial in view of the partiality of the judges. A third group of lawyers has filed an appeal with the European Commission of Human Rights. This procedure, however, will not be acted on until the year 2001 or 2002. It has no legal standing so any judgment would have only symbolic value.

Communist workers and youth, supporters of the Militant in France, have denounced the frame-up against the 138, demanded that all charges against them be dropped and all the prisoners be released, and condemned the role of French imperialism in Algeria.

Florence Duval is a member of the Young Socialists in Paris.  
 
 
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