Saadi Yacef

Saadi Yacef 20 January 1928 10 September 2021 was an Algerian independence fighter serving as a leader of the National Liberation Front during his countrys war of independence After the Algerian War Yacef helped produce Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvos film The Battle of Algiers 1966 based on Souvenirs de la Bataille dAlger Yacef played a character modeled on his own experiences named as Djafar in the battle He began his professional life as a bakers apprentice In 1945 he joined the Algerian Peoples Party PPA which was succeeded by the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties MTLD where he was active in the armed wing the Special Organization between 1947 and 1949 He went to France after the dismantling of the OS and only returned to Algeria in 1952 where he resumed his work as a baker in the Casbah In 1955 he joined the ranks of the FLN at the start of the war of independence then left for Switzerland for a liaison mission with Ben Bella The Swiss authorities expelled him and he was arrested by the French police in Orly who transferred him to Algiers and imprisoned him He was released in September 1955 on the condition that he inform the DST about the activities of the FLN in Algiers He went underground and became the righthand man of the leader of the FLN for the military zone of Algiers Larbi Ben Mhidi He became the FLN military leader of the autonomous zone of Algiers in May 1956 and replaced him in March 1957 after the death of Ben Mhidi assassinated by General Aussaresses On September 24 1957 he was captured by French paratroopers and sentenced to death but finally released after the Evian Accords of March 18 1962 Saâdi was pardoned by General de Gaulle along with all those condemned to death in Algeria in January 1959 He then benefited from amnesty in 1962 Close to Ben Bella he founded a film production company Casbah Films which he financed with Algerian and Yugoslav capital In 1962 he published Memories of the Battle of Algiers his memoirs of the battle which he wrote during his incarceration In July 1963 Yacef Saâdi was appointed by Ahmed Ben Bella president of the National Center for Friendship with Peoples CNAP intended to publicize abroad the achievements of Algerian socialism In 1966 he coproduced with the Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo the famous film The Battle of Algiers in which he played himself He was appointed president of the Algerian club USM Alger for three years 19721975 On January 6 2001 Saâdi was appointed senator by President Bouteflika out of the contingent of 29 appointments reserved for him His mandate was not renewed by the President of the Republic in January 2016 According to the Algerian daily LExpression Yacef Saâdi was approached in 2003 by the FBI and the CIA with the aim of drawing inspiration from his guerrilla warfare urban from the time of the prestigious battle of Algiers to fight the Iraqi resistance He refuses to collaborate