ALGIERS, Dec 17: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was released from a Paris military hospital on Saturday, at the end of a three-week stay shrouded in secrecy, his doctor and French officials said.

But controversy over the news coverage of the president’s illness continued with the Algerian state and private media at odds over the information, or lack of it, about the president’s state of health.

His doctor said he was well but a spokeswoman for the hospital simply confirmed he had been discharged, without giving further details.

An informed Algerian source in Paris said Mr Bouteflika was in a rest home in the Paris region.

The source did not say how long the leader would stay in the home but another source, in Algiers, said it would be several days.

“The health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is developing well and there is a very good prognosis as a result of the surgery he had,” his doctor Messaoud Zitouni said in a statement from Paris.

“During his stay in hospital his doctors prescribed additional check-ups as part of an in-depth health examination,” said the doctor, who had accompanied Bouteflika to Paris.

“As the results of the check-ups were satisfactory, the doctors decided that the president should be released from hospital,” the statement said.

“The president has been advised to rest before resuming his national and international actitivities,” it added.

Mr Boutelfika’s release from the Val de Grace military hospital was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the French army’s health service, Anne Robert, who also gave no further details, including on his state of health.

The Algerian source added that an Algerian television crew had flown to Paris and that the leader might speak on the north African country’s evening news.

A lack of information about Bouteflika’s health since he was hospitalized on Nov 26 had fuelled speculation that his condition might be more serious than publicly admitted.—AFP