Algeria's Bouteflika in France for medical check-up: state media

Reuters
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika looks on during a swearing-in ceremony in Algiers April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been seen only occasionally in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, left on Monday for a periodic medical checkup in France, the presidency said in a statement carried by APS state media. Bouteflika, 79, has visited hospital in Europe several times since the stroke, which left him hospitalised in France for months. The veteran of Algeria's 1954-62 independence war has governed the North African OPEC state for more than 15 years. (Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Mark Heinrich)