PARIS (AP) French Gen. Paul Aussaresses, whose cold admission of executions and torture during the Algerian independence war five decades ago forced France to examine a dark period of its past, has died. He was 95.
Aussaresses' death was announced Wednesday on the website of veteran's association "Who Dares Wins."
He was convicted and fined in January 2002 for "complicity in justifying war crimes" in connection with a memoir about the war that ended with Algeria's independence from French rule in 1962.
The general was the intelligence chief and a top commander during the 1957 Battle of Algiers.
In Aussaresses' book, "Special Services: Algeria 1955-57," he detailed methods of torture used against prisoners under his command. The methods ranged from electricity to suffocation with water. He also implied top leaders were aware.
