[2] Bentoumi entered the Algerian nationalist movement very early on, in 1943: “I was recruited by Hocine Asselah, leader of the MCA basketball team.
[3] In the baccalaureate, I obtained a very good mark in philosophy and intended to study for a bachelor's degree in history, but Asselah discouraged me from doing so.
"I had become the clandestine responsible for it with Cheikh Sahnoun as muphti, alongside Djennas, Kerbouche, Aroua, Dr Belouizdad.
[6] Then he was appointed chief of cabinet of Rabah Bitat during the last months of the GPRA (Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic) before being elected deputy of Algiers on July 22, 1962, within the Constituent Assembly.
[8] Not renewed in the second Ben Bella government, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Algerian desert, with Ferhat Abbas and many others for more than a year in 1963.