Tahar Djaout was shot in the head three times at close range on the morning on 26 May 1993, as he was leaving his home in Bainem, Algeria. He died eight days later. It was assumed that the rebel Armed Islamic Group (GIA) was responsible. Aged 39, he was a known and respected Algerian novelist and journalist, and was the author of the now celebrated verse:
Silence is death And you, if you speak, you die If you are silent you die So, speak and die.
