1.
LV. Crowds outside the "Hotel Du Parc".
3 ft

2.
LV. Armed police in the street.
2 ft

3.
SV. The crowd link arms outside the hotel
2 ft

4.
SV. TOWARDS. Messali arrives.
4 ft

5.
SV. He is embraced by his daughter.
9 ft

6.
STV. They enter the hotel.
4 ft



Initials HV/MR/CW



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Visnews filmed 19 Jan at Chantilly near Paris, Messali Hadj, the 68 years old former leader of the Algerian Nationalist organization MNA, Hadj a political prisoner of the French Government for the past 3 years, was released Jan 14 from Belle Ile Fortress of the French Atlantic Coast.

Hadj was released under the amnesty announced by General de Gaulle on Jan 13. Allowed to travel freely in France, he will not be permitted to return to Algeria.

The amnesty marked the beginning of General de Gaulle's seven years as President of the Fifth Republic. It includes Frenchmen serving prison sentences for collaborating with the Germans during World War II, common criminals, and some 7,000 Muslim suspects in Algerian internment camps. The death sentences of 200 convicted Algerian terrorists were commuted to hard labour for life.

Ahmed Ben Bella and other leaders of the second Algerian Nationalist Organization F.L.N. who were arrested in 1956, will be moved from a prison near Paris and placed in a fortress where they will be given preferential treatment.