Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was in Paris for a medical examination on Thursday, five months after undergoing stomach surgery in the French capital, French and Algerian officials said.
Algerian officials said 69-year-old Bouteflika, who was operated on for a bleeding stomach ulcer at a Paris military hospital last November, was in the country for a routine consultation.
”It is a post-surgical check-up. It is a routine examination that is absolutely normal following a surgical operation. There is nothing serious,” Algerian Minister of State Abdelaziz Belkhadem, Bouteflika’s spokesperson, told Agence France-Presse.
The Algerian Presidency issued a statement saying the check-up had been ”planned well in advance, following his hospitalisation at Paris’s Val de Grace hospital last November”.
France’s foreign ministry confirmed that Bouteflika was in France for a long-planned consultation — his third since the operation, according to other sources in the French capital.
Belkhadem said the Algerian leader would ”very certainly” be examined at the Val de Grace hospital, without specifying how long he would remain in France.
Bouteflika’s three-week hospital stay last year, followed by two weeks’ convalescence, was shrouded in secrecy and the lack of official information fuelled fears that his condition might be more serious than admitted.
Algiers had dismissed as ”crazy rumours” the speculation about his health, including suggestions that he may be suffering from stomach cancer. — AFP
