Colonel Tahar Zbiri has passed away
Former Colonel Tahar Zbiri, head of historic wilaya I and former member of the Council of the Nation, died Wednesday in Algiers at the age of 95. Tahar Zbiri was the one who arrested Ahmed Ben Bella on June 19.
The former commander of wilaya I therefore waited until the eve of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the war of liberation in which he participated to pass away.
Born in 1929 in Sedrata (Souk Ahras), Tahar Zbiri is a former worker in the Ouenza mines. An early mujahid, he participated in the outbreak of the war of independence in the Guelma region alongside Badji Mokhtar. Arrested on January 3, 1955 during a skirmish at Jebel Sidi Ahmed, near the Algerian-Tunisian border, he was imprisoned in Souk-Ahras then in Constantine.
Sentenced to death in 1955, Tahar Zbiri escaped on November 10, 1955 from Constantine prison with the head of region 1, Mostefa Ben Boulaïd. He will be designated leader of the 3rd battalion at the Eastern base then head of the historic wilaya I in 1960. He joined the National Council of the Algerian Revolution (CNRA) in 1959 and became colonel commander of the wilaya I from 1961 to 1962 , following the death of Commander Souahi Ali, head of the wilaya, on February 11, 1961.
Tahar Zbiri will be one of the leaders who joined the Oujda clan. After Ben Bella and Boumediene took power, the head of state appointed him head of the general staff to counter Colonel Houari Boumediene whom he distrusted. However, it was Tahar Zbiri who arrested President Ben Bella. Like all the leaders of the June 19 putsch, he became a member of the Council of the Revolution, installed after having arrested Ahmed Ben Bella.
However, disappointed by the turn of the measures taken by Houari Boumediene, Tahar Zbiri attempted an attempt with commanders Lakhdar Bouregaa and Amar Mellah to carry out a coup d’état on December 14, 1967. He accused Boumediene of “individual predilection, improvisation, attempt to hitting the unity of the army and monopolizing posts.”
The tanks and units which were to take control of Algiers were decimated by the air force sent by Houari Boumediene to El Affroun. Many mutineers died during the clashes.
Tahar Zbiri manages to escape arrest and takes refuge abroad.
On July 23, 1969, he was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Oran with commanders Houasnia Layachi, Kara Maamar, Mebarkia Abdesselein and Amar Mellah. Tahar Zbiri returned to Algeria after the death of Houari Boumediene and the release of Ben Bella from prison.
In 1988, Tahar Zbiri signed the petition of the “18” in the company, among others, of Lakhdar Bentobal and Abdelaziz Bouteflika (published in the evening daily Horizons) asking Chadli Bendjedid to take measures to establish democracy.
He was appointed under Liamine Zeroual as a member of the CNISEL in June 1997, a structure responsible for monitoring the elections without any efficiency on the results. Then he will be a senator.
