Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Abdelaziz Bouteflika GColIH
عبد العزيز بوتفليقة‎
Bouteflika in 2012
7th President of Algeria
In office 27 April 1999 – 2 April 2019
Prime Minister	See list Smail Hamdani Ahmed Benbitour Ali Benflis Ahmed Ouyahia Abdelaziz Belkhadem Ahmed Ouyahia Abdelmalek Sellal Youcef Yousfi (acting) Abdelmalek Sellal Abdelmadjid Tebboune Ahmed Ouyahia Noureddine Bedoui
Preceded by	Liamine Zéroual
Succeeded by	Abdelkader Bensalah (acting) Abdelmadjid Tebboune
5th Chairperson of National Liberation Front
In office 28 January 2005 – 17 September 2021
Preceded by	Chadli Bendjedid
Minister of Defence
In office 5 May 2003 – 2 April 2019
Deputy	Ahmed Gaid Salah
Preceded by	Liamine Zéroual
Succeeded by	Abdelmadjid Tebboune
President of the United Nations General Assembly
In office 17 September 1974 – 15 September 1975[1]
Preceded by	Leopoldo Benites
Succeeded by	Gaston Thorn
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 1963–1979
Preceded by	Mohamed Khemisti
Succeeded by	Mohammed Seddik Benyahia
Personal details
Born	(1937-03-02)2 March 1937 Oujda, French Morocco
Died	17 September 2021(2021-09-17) (aged 84) Zéralda, Algeria
Resting place	El Alia Cemetery, Algiers
Nationality	Algerian
Political party	Independent
Spouse	Amal Triki ​ ​ (m. 1990, divorced)​ [2]
Relatives	Saïd Bouteflika (brother)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic
Branch/service	National Liberation Army
Years of service	1956–1962
Battles/wars	Algerian War

Abdelaziz Bouteflika (pronunciation^ⓘ; Arabic: عبد العزيز بوتفليقة, romanized: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Būtaflīqa [ʕabd elʕaziːz buːtefliːqa]; 2 March 1937 – 17 September 2021) was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as the seventh president of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 2019.

Before his stint as an Algerian politician, Bouteflika served during the Algerian War as a member of the National Liberation Front. After Algeria gained its independence from France, he served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1963 until 1979. He served as President of the United Nations General Assembly during the 1974–1975 session. In 1983 he was convicted of stealing millions of dinars from Algerian embassies during his diplomatic career.

In 1999, Bouteflika was elected president of Algeria in a landslide victory. He would win re-elections in 2004, 2009, and 2014. As President, he presided over the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002 when he took over the project of his immediate predecessor President Liamine Zéroual, and he ended emergency rule in February 2011 amidst regional unrest. Following a stroke in 2013, Bouteflika had made few public appearances throughout his fourth term, making his final appearance in 2017.^[3]

Bouteflika resigned on 2 April 2019 amid months of mass protests opposing his candidacy for a fifth term. With nearly 20 years in power, he is the longest-serving head of state of Algeria to date.^[4] Following his resignation, Bouteflika became a recluse and died at the age of 84 in 2021, over two years after his resignation.^[3] After his death it became known in a Suisse secrets data leak, that he held a Credit Suisse account which overlapped with much of his presidency.