Boualem Boualem, the magistrate who served the State

Nadia Cherifi — Alger, Algérie — 2026-10-07

There are men whose importance is discovered only at the moment they leave. Boualem Boualem was one of them.

He died on Monday, in Geneva, after an incurable illness. He was chief of staff to the Presidency of the Republic.

A servant, not an apparatchik

In a State, there are two ways of occupying power: to use it, or to serve it. Boualem Boualem belonged to the second category.

A magistrate by training, he began his judicial career in 1982 at the Oran court. He was later a magistrate at the Supreme Court. The Algerian people elected him to the People's National Assembly, for the wilaya of Tiaret.

Then came administrative responsibilities, all in the same field: law, justice, the public order of the State. In 2016, he was placed at the head of the National Authority for the Prevention of and Fight against Crime related to Information and Communication Technologies. In 2020, the President of the Republic appointed him adviser for legal and judicial affairs. In 2023, his portfolio widened: legal and judicial affairs, institutional relations, investigations and rehabilitation.

On 2 January 2024, he became chief of staff to the Presidency of the Republic — after having held the post in an acting capacity the previous year.

Forty-four years of public service, in the shadows, without a single posture.

What the Presidency wrote

The Presidency of the Republic paid tribute to the man it describes as a “discreet jurist”, whose command of the files and rigour left their mark on all those who worked at his side.

“Boualem Boualem has left us. With his passing, Algeria loses a true patriot and a great servant of the State, among those devoted to the service of the nation. In every post of responsibility he held and every mission he assumed, he was a model of commitment, worthy of the trust placed in him, loyal to his country and devoted to his work.”

And this sentence, which says the essential of what a State owes to those who serve it without noise:

“His rich career as a magistrate, his deep and nuanced command of the legal and judicial fields, his experience and his wisdom in public administration earned him esteem, consideration and respect. He enjoyed the full confidence of the President of the Republic.”

**The Presidency accompanied that tribute with the verse: “O reassured soul, return to your Lord, satisfied and well-pleasing; enter among My servants, and enter My Paradise.” — and with the formula of return: *“We belong to Allah and to Him we return.”***

The funeral

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune went on Tuesday to the honours lounge of Houari Boumediene international airport, in Algiers, for a final tribute. There he recited the Fatiha and offered his personal condolences to the family of the deceased. Senior State officials were present at his side.

On Wednesday afternoon, the body of Boualem Boualem was buried in the Aïn El-Beida cemetery, in Oran, his city.

The funeral prayers were said at the Grand Mosque Abdelhamid Ben Badis. Its imam, Zabar Bouabdallah, delivered an address praising the virtues of the deceased: “a true patriot, a sincere and learned jurist who devoted his life to the service of his country, and an emblematic figure of the State”.

The ceremony took place in the presence of senior State officials, members of the government, national figures, the family and a large crowd of citizens. Throughout the day, Algerians had gone to the family home in Oran for a final farewell.

What he leaves

Boualem Boualem left no speeches. He left a method: read the file before speaking of it, verify before asserting, decide after listening.

In the great legal and institutional cases of recent years, his name recurs as that of the technician consulted when the stakes are too heavy for approximation. That is a reputation that cannot be bought, and cannot be decreed.

There are, in public life, faces that the public knows and hands that hold the edifice. Boualem Boualem was one of those hands.

Algeria owes him the discretion of his work, and the constancy of his commitment. It owes him today the respect of his silence.

To his family, to his loved ones, and to all those who knew him, Algeria Vanguard offers its most sincere condolences.

إنّا لله وإنّا إليه راجعون.

Sources: Presidency of the Republic, tribute published on its official website, taken up by Radio Algérienne (“Final Tribute: Boualem Boualem... The Legal Mind Who Served the State and Nation”, 7 October 2026). — Radio Algérienne, “Remains of the Late Boualem Boualem Laid to Rest at Aïn El-Beida Cemetery in Oran”, 7 October 2026, 17h29 (funeral, Grand Mosque Abdelhamid Ben Badis, imam Zabar Bouabdallah, presence of the President of the Republic on 6 October at the honours lounge of Houari Boumediene airport, death on Monday in Geneva after an incurable illness). — La Nouvelle République (Algeria), 7 October 2026 (tribute by the President of the Republic). — TSA, 7 October 2026 (postponement by ANEP of the ceremony to award the Assia Djebar prize).