Abdelhak Layada

Abdelhak Layada (Arabic: عبد الحق ليادة‎), also known as Abu Adlane, was one of the founders of Algeria's militant Islamist group Armed Islamic Group (GIA) during the Algerian Civil War, and led it after the death of Mohamed Allel ("Moh Leveilly").

He declared his group independent of the existing Islamic Armed Movement (MIA) in January 1993. He was arrested in Morocco and handed over to the Algerian authorities on 29 September 1993. He was sentenced to death in June 1995. He claims to regret the killing of innocent civilians for which the GIA became notorious, blaming it on his successors who controlled the GIA while he was in prison.

Layada was released from prison on March 12, 2006 under president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's "Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation". He now lives in his previous home in Baraki, not far south of Algiers.

[edit] References

• "Islamist leader freed in Algeria". BBC News. 13 March 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4801318.stm. 
• "In Algeria, amnesty, but not forgiveness". International Herald Tribune. June 28 2006. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/28/news/algeria.php. 
• "Le fondateur du GIA écrit à Bouteflika: “Le Maroc a soutenu les groupes armés”". Le Soir d'Algérie. 13 February 2005. http://www.algeria-watch.org/fr/article/pol/amnistie/fondateur_gia.htm. 
• "Le sanglant parcours du fondateur du GIA" (^{[dead link]}). Le Soir d'Algérie. 13 March 2006. http://www.lesoirdalgerie.com/pdf/2006/03/13/p03act.pdf. 

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