-French judge in Algeria observes exhumation of monks killed in 1996
By Hamid Ould Ahmed
ALGIERS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A French judge visiting Algeria to investigate the killing of seven French Trappist monks during Islamist-linked violence 18 years ago has attended the exhumation of their remains, an Algerian government official said on Tuesday.
Judge Marc Trevidic arrived on Sunday and on Tuesday observed the exhumation of the monks from the Tibehirine monastery, 80 km (50 miles) south of Algiers, where they were killed in 1996, the official said.
At the time, only their severed heads were recovered, and the circumstances under which they died are unclear.
"An Algerian judge will travel to France to complete the investigation," one Algerian judicial official told Reuters, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
About 200,000 people were killed in Algeria during more than a decade of violence that erupted in the early 1990s between Islamist militants and security forces. The conflict was marked by massacres and the killing of civilians.
Algerian authorities have said the monks were abducted by militants and found dead with their throats cut two months later but that version has been questioned by several sources and France opened an official inquiry into their deaths in 2004.
The Islamic Armed Group (GIA), a militant group known at the time for targeting foreigners in the former French colony, claimed credit for murdering the monks.
"What the two judges will do is part of a judicial cooperation agreement that the two countries signed (in 2005) to fight against terrorism and organized crime," the official said.
Algeria and its former colonial ruler are also cooperating over last month's kidnapping and beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was captured while hiking in mountains east of Algiers by militants allied with Islamic State extremists.
The Caliphate Soldiers group claimed to have captured and executed Gourdel to punish France for its military operations against Islamic State, which has taken over parts of Syria and Iraq. (Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; Editing by Patrick Markey, Toni Reinhold)
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