17/08/2008
French police arrested Algerian foreign ministry protocol chief Mohammed Ziane Hassani upon his arrival in Marseille from Algiers Friday (August 15th), local and international press reports said. The arrest is part of an official probe into the 1987 assassination of Ali Mecili, an aide to Algeria's Socialist Forces Front leader Hocine Ait Ahmed, in his Paris home. The BBC quoted police sources as saying that while Hassani has a diplomatic passport, he does not have diplomatic immunity.