Boualem Bessaih

Boualem Bessaih (بوعلام بصايح), born in 1930 in El-Bayadh in Algeria and died on July 28, 2016, is an Algerian politician, diplomat and man of letters, several times minister, and former president of the Constitutional Council. He was, from June 11, 2016 until his death, Minister of State, special advisor to the President of the Republic, personal representative of the Head of State in the Sellal IV government. Boualem Bessaih is a former professor of literature and doctor of literature and human sciences, with bilingual training (Arabic, French). During the Algerian War of Independence, he joined the maquis at the beginning of 1957, occupied important positions in the ranks of the Armed Revolution (one of Boussouf's deputies). He was among the founders of the Algerian secret services: in this capacity, he headed the counter-espionage section of the Didouche base in Tripoli, and was a member of the general secretariat of the National Council of the Algerian Revolution from 1959 to 1962. Upon independence, he was ambassador to several European and Arab capitals (Bern, the Vatican, Cairo, Kuwait, Rabat). In 1971, he was appointed Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1979, he entered the government and held several ministerial positions. He was successively appointed Minister of Information, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minister of Culture and finally Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1988. In this capacity, he participated, within the Algeria-Morocco-Saudi Arabia tripartite decided by the Arab summit in Casablanca, in the efforts made to reach the Taif Accords. In 1997, he was appointed member of the Council of the Nation as one-third of the presidency, then elected president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of this Council. After serving as ambassador to Morocco, he was appointed president of the Constitutional Council in September 2005 by the President of the Republic, a position he held until March 2012. In this capacity, it was during his term as president of the Constitutional Council that the revision of the Constitution1 took place in 2008, leading to the lifting of the limitation on presidential terms. On June 11, 2016, he was appointed by President Bouteflika as Minister of State, special advisor to the President of the Republic and personal representative of the Head of State. He died on July 28, 2016, at the age of 86.